Waco's first AI conference, the YOU × AI Summit, will take place on Saturday, September 12, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Performing Arts & Community Center in downtown Waco. BrainTrust Partners has signed on as the Founding Title Sponsor, underscoring the event's focus on practical AI applications for businesses.
Tim Hayden, CEO of BrainTrust Partners, will deliver a talk titled "Your Data, Your AI, and Your Future" at 9:50 a.m. Hayden emphasizes that many companies overlook the value of their own data. "You have intelligence sitting somewhere within the pipes of your business," he said. "That's your brand. It is your brand DNA that can shape AI in your brand voice." He argues that data that is resolved, unified, structured, and labeled makes AI work stronger for a brand, and skipping this step will cost more in budget and accuracy.
Hayden also warns that businesses are often paying for the wrong AI tools. "There's no reason why you have to look at ChatGPT or Claude to run everything," he said. He points out that open-weight models can be trained on a company's own data, run privately, and cost a fraction of enterprise subscriptions for AI models trained on everyone else's business. This approach ensures security, privacy, and control.
The summit will feature 23 speakers across four tracks: Build, Get Found, Sound Like You, and AI Safety. Bryan Eisenberg, who helped coin the term conversion rate optimization, will open the event at 8:20 a.m. with a keynote titled "Before the Algorithm, There Was Your Story. That Hasn't Changed." His session description notes, "People don't buy rates. They buy stories they can see themselves in." Dr. Hope Koch, who holds the Godfrey Sullivan Endowed Chair of Information Systems and Business Analytics at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business, will close the day at 4:05 p.m. with a session called HOPE, for Human Opportunity and a Period of Exponential Change.
Several sessions are hands-on workshops, and attendees are encouraged to bring a laptop to leave with working tools. Session highlights include "AI, Crime & Community: What You Need to Know" by Joseph Scaramucci, "Beating Admission Inflation: How We Built an AI Mentor for Every Student" by Dariia Isyk, and "Build an AI Assistant" by Chrissy McDannell.
The summit's name includes a multiplication sign to convey a core message. "Most people think AI is the great equalizer," said Fernando Labastida, founder of the Viral Genius Institute and co-organizer. "It's a multiplier, and multipliers widen gaps. A business with nothing to say brings a 1, and AI takes it to 2. The competitor with a real point of view brings a 10, and the same AI takes them to 20. Same tools. Bigger gap."
Registration is available at youxai.live. Tickets are $99, with a discounted rate of $69 per seat for teams of 10 or more through September 10. Session recordings are available as a $99 add-on.
