Office Hours: The Future of AI in Search, How Scott Became a Professor at NYU, and Finding Balance Between Ambition and Contentment

Scott gives his thoughts on how AI will affect the future of search, specifically how selection and choice is a tax on consumers. He then advises a listener who wants to become an adjunct professor and shares the story of how he became a professor at NYU. He wraps up with advice to a teacher wondering how to strike the balance between contentment and wanting more. Music: https://www.davidcuttermusic.com / @dcuttermusic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Scott Galloway?

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• 0:48Speaker 01

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• 1:16Scott Galloway?

  Welcome to the Prof G Pod's Office Hours. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to [email protected]. Again, that's [email protected]. First question.

• 1:34Speaker 02

  Hi, Prof G. This is Duncan from Fort Wayne, Indiana. I have a question about search and AI. In the news this week, Perplexity, an AI-based search engine, got an investment from Jeff Bezos. ChatGPT has its own Search the Web function, and I've read that Google is also returning searches with long text instead of the standard 10 blue links. Going forward... How is AI and this form of search going to impact things from search engine optimization to website traffic? Do you think the old rules of search engine optimization are going to be rewritten? And how should one structure their website and try and get their content out there in order to drive traffic when in the future click-throughs and site visits

• 2:18Speaker 02

  may not be the end game? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for all your great content.

• 2:24Scott Galloway?

  If I had that answer, I wouldn't have a podcast. I'd have a giant consulting firm that I would sell to Gartner. Actually, I did that. Anyway, a bit of context here. Bezos has backed Perplexity, a startup valued at 520 million. It's a challenger essentially to Google. There's been a lot of challenges to Google. I invested in Niva, which was subscription search, thinking, or my thesis was one. The guy running the business was this incredibly talented former head of product for search at Google, so very smart. And I thought, okay, the original sin of the internet was that it's ad-supported. So I have this strategy around, I want to invest in the externalities to how to make things better. So I invested in this company called Open Web that manages a comment

• 3:06Scott Galloway?

  section of content where things get really ugly usually. So I liked investing in sort of trying to clean up the digital exhaust. And I invested in Niva, the subscription search engine, thinking that if people pay for the returns, the underlying company won't have incentive to just put stuff that gets clicks in front of you, which often tends to be more polarizing and incendiary, et cetera. It never got traction. Google has such an amazing search engine, such amazing IP, and it's free, that we were never able to get any real traction. I got my money back because the team is so talented there that it was essentially an aqua hire and Snowflake acquired the company. And we didn't make any money, but we got our money back, which, when you think about it, is an incredible venture capital investment.

• 3:50Scott Galloway?

  If you can take a big cut at the ball and hope that you hit it out of the park and take on Google, that'd be great if that happens. But if it doesn't and you get your money back, it's kind of like getting a lottery ticket where, okay, maybe you didn't hit the jackpot or you didn't win Super Bowl or whatever it's called. I don't play the lottery. Anyways, back to search. So Bezos has invested in perplexity. Perplexity's founders say the advantage of her Google is that they use AI to give consumers direct answers rather than links, saying that if you can directly answer somebody's question, nobody needs those 10 blue links. How is AI impacting SEO and website traffic? There are AI-powered tools that help businesses target relevant keywords and create customized content that connects business with the intended audience. So I have some thoughts around search.

• 4:34Scott Galloway?

  I'm not sure it directly answers your question, but I'll provide them anyways. One, choice is a tax. It's not, it's not a benefit, it's a tax. The reason why TikTok is so iconic, revolutionary, is that rather than having 400 channels and trying to figure out if you want to watch ESPN8 or A and E3 or the crime channel, whatever it is, or spend 10 minutes a day, which is what the average American household spends deciding what to watch on Netflix. TikTok says, "We know you so well, we use AI and Signal Quiddity to basically put together one channel, but you're gonna love this channel, trust us on it," and they're right. I could watch TikTok for hours. Anyways, the problem with search is that there are too many choices, and those choices

• 5:18Scott Galloway?

  have been weaponized by an insatiable dragon called Google shareholders that want more and more growth. Remember back in the good old days when the top two ads were shaded dark blue, so you knew this was ad was paid for? Well, they did away with all of those, so now, basically, in certain searches, the first three, four pages, the first 20, 50, 100 search returns are not the best place to take you, it's a place they can further monetize. And so, selection or choice has become a tax for consumers. And what AI, I believe its core, kind of its core value proposition, is that rather than giving you 50 answers that might be 0% good or 99% good, but you have to sort through them and do diligence on your own and start clicking on multiple links, we're gonna take

• 6:02Scott Galloway?

  a stab at giving you one answer that we think is 70 to 80% right. If you think about it, AI, especially retail, and that it has a merchant called an LLM picking out not the 100 best toasters, but the one best toaster. And it said, "We are so confident that we can merchant..." Across every piece of content that's been produced out there and assemble it in a way such that it gives you the best toaster and you can have confidence that this is the right answer. I think that is incredibly powerful. What is also interesting here is that overnight, Google looked flat footed. They just, OpenAI came out, basically what felt like skyrocketed to nine billion of value. And overnight, it looked as if Google's management team was flat footed. Why?

• 6:45Scott Galloway?

  Literally case study number one in next year's first year business strategy class of the innovator's dilemma. What is that? And that is a company makes so much money in their core business that they purposely ignore innovations because they don't want to get rid of the iPod, which was making a shit ton of money for Apple. But guess what? Apple read the memo and probably took Clay Christensen's class and said, we're not going to, we need to cannibalize our own business. And so they turned the iPod into an icon, an app on your iPhone. And they cannibalized themselves, realizing if they didn't do it to themselves, someone else would do it. Google search is the biggest toll booth in history, $150 billion toll booth, unbelievable margins.

• 7:26Scott Galloway?

  And despite the fact that they had invented much of the original IP around AI, they didn't have an AI product to speak of. And someone else came in and said, we don't mind disrupting ourselves because there's nothing to disrupt. And they build something that is disruptive to the search community. Now, now, having said that, one of my stock picks for 2024 is, wait for it, Alphabet. Because it strikes me that the technologies, the LLMs here are going to be very challenged to maintain any sort of tangible differentiation. Why? Because an AI will go into an LLM and say, what's different here? And be able to reverse engineer it fairly quickly. If I sound like I don't really know what I'm talking about, trust your instincts. But it makes sense to me and I'm going to go with it. So what does that mean? What is the point of differentiation between Anthropic, between OpenAI? Sure, it's technology.

• 8:11Scott Galloway?

  Sure, it's the amount of capital they raise, but also very much so, maybe even rising to the top like Foam. If Foam is content, is content. And that is whoever has access or proprietary access to content that is more. How valuable to crawl and can pull together that one better toaster, if you will, the best materials, if you will, for the toaster, I think will win or establish some form of differentiation. So what does that mean? I would argue that the company with the best content as it relates to generative AI is in fact Alphabet. Specifically, they have your Gmail, they have your, they have your calendar, they have your YouTube search preferences. I think that they will be able to elegantly figure out a way to make your content more efficient and more entertaining.

• 8:53Scott Galloway?

  Why? Okay, on my calendar, it says I am planning to go to TED. I've been asked to speak at TED because I'm kind of a big deal in Vancouver. Shouldn't the AI in Gmail be reaching out to Google Travel and figuring out the best, looking at my preferences, looking at the dates I want to go, and then the AI speaks to British Airways and says, this is his travel pattern, his history, what CD likes, and send me an update via Gmail, which they already own, saying, here's an alert, or maybe send it to my Android phone or my iPhone that says, okay, we see you're going to TED. Here are three options. This is the airline, the class of service, and also we've also, here's three great hotel options. Or Scott, every time you are in, we've looked at your calendar and the AI has figured out within about a millionth of a second that every time you are in Florida over the holidays,

• 9:38Scott Galloway?

  you like to get your teeth cleaned. That's Bodak Dental. Okay, okay, our AI is going to reach out to theirs. We've talked about this before. Alphabet has, in my view, the richest content for informing their generative AI. And as a result, one of my stock picks for 2024 is in fact, is in fact Alphabet. Why? If the first stage of the AI wars was Star Wars, I think this year is going to be the Empire Strikes Back. And I think the Empire is Alphabet. Thanks for the question. Question number two.

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Hello, Prof G. Thanks for taking my question. I'm a big fan and play your podcasts during long road trips with my sons as I drive them back to their colleges. We all learn together from your insights, so thank you for that. So here's my question. I'm in my early 50s and I've been fortunate to have a rewarding marketing career, working for companies like Procter and Gamble, Twitter, and Snapchat. As I reflect during my middle age, I've been thinking of the next step in actually teaching marketing. This has often been stoked with friends and family saying you'd make a great marketing instructor. So I've dipped my toes in the water as guest speakers to various colleges and universities, and I've enjoyed this experience and have received positive feedback from profs and students. So in this latter stage of my career, I've been thinking of being an adjunct professor, but have lots of questions. Well, who better

• 10:55Speaker 03

  to ask than Prof G himself? So I would appreciate your thoughts on careers as adjunct professors. What are the positives? What are the drawbacks? Is it worth it? This wouldn't be to get rich, but more for the experience to give back to the next generation while making a little bit of money. Thanks, Prof G.

• 11:13Scott Galloway?

  What a great question from anonymous, and congratulations on your career. You made the jump to light speed going from a CPG company, which is an amazing company, Procter and Gamble. I love PNG. They're very paternal. They're good people. They're innovative. But a lot of people wanted to make the jump to the Pepsi generation of our economy, and that it was these new economy platforms, and you were able to do that. And I bet a lot of your colleagues were jealous that you got to Twitter and Snapchat. Mostly the latter, mostly Snapchat. But anyways, it sounds like you're a talented executive who's been able to reinvent yourself, or at least update your skills. Okay, adjunct. So I'll give you my, as always, I really enjoy talking about me, but I think there's some learning

• 11:53Scott Galloway?

  here. In 1999, I decided I wanted to change my life. I was married, living in San Francisco, working in tech, and I didn't like any of those things. So what did I do? I got divorced. I moved to New York. I quit my job, or I sold my company, or put it on a track. It was a firm called Profit Brand Strategy to be sold, moved to New York, and joined the faculty. I always wanted to be in New York. Couldn't stand San Francisco. During the day, dealing with venture capitalists, who in my opinion were the most rapacious small people I'd ever met in my life, and then at night, they'd all pretend to be saving the whales. I just found the whole thing so disingenuous. Whereas New York, Nueva Yorka, was much more honest. We're here to party, and we're here to make money. And

• 12:35Scott Galloway?

  I just liked the honesty and the rawness of Manhattan. I thought, these are my people, plus bars are open till 4:00 a.m. Got back to New York, and I thought, okay, what am I gonna do? I, like you, wanted to teach. I was younger than you. I think I was about, when I moved there, I was about 33, 34. And I called my marketing professor, who is now the department chair at NYU, Russ Weiner, who is one of the better professors at the Haas School. And I said, I would really like to teach. And he said, OK, we'll come in and lecture a couple of times, which I did. And they let me be an adjunct. And I taught brand strategy. I taught the course that David Acker taught me that inspired me to go on and teach brand strategy. My first year, I made $12,000 or I got paid $12,000 to teach brand strategy in whatever it was, 2000.

• 13:18Scott Galloway?

  And students rank you or score you on a scale of zero to seven, and I got a 4.9, which is really piss poor. And Russ called me and said, you're right on the cusp here. And unless you get your score up next semester, we can't have you back. And so I really pored over the comments, tried to learn from them, and slowly but surely worked my way up over the course of 22 or 23 years to a position where my course is one of the most popular courses at Stern. I've taught about 5,500 students. And slowly but surely was in a position to demand greater compensation in several formats. One, becoming a full-time faculty, which gave you greater benefits. I got housing.

• 14:01Scott Galloway?

  I got basically a free three-bedroom in Soho, which was probably like when you do the math, like a $200,000 benefit. And by the time I left, or at least I stepped down, because I returned, I started returning all my compensation to NYU Stern once I made some money. See about virtue signaling. I was making about 200 grand a year now. So what you want to do is you want to, you've done it already. You want to do some guest speaking, and then you want to pitch some universities local to you on you being an adjunct. How do you do that? You come up with a syllabus and an outline, and then you really focus on it, you really try and do really well your first couple of classes. You either have it or you don't. You can learn, you can iterate to a certain, you know, a certain amount.

• 14:44Scott Galloway?

  But some people are just naturally good at it, some people aren't. Once you get good at it, it's all about, it's a business, butts in seats. If you have strong enrollments, you'll have leverage with your, you'll have leverage with the host institution and be able to demand more compensation. And the way I demanded that Was every three or five years, I would do a market check. I would reach out to the head of marketing at Wharton or at Columbia. And I would say, I'm exploring opportunities. I taught for one semester at Cornell's tech campus. And they would give me a sense for what I was worth in the eyes of strangers. And unfortunately, in corporate America and in academia, you are more attractive to strangers. And that is in order to seduce you. If they think you're worth seducing, they will give you a step change up in compensation. And then what I would do, and I don't think there's anything wrong with this.

• 15:27Scott Galloway?

  I would go back to NYU, the powers of NYU, and I'd say, I really like it here. I don't want to leave. This is my market value. Can you match it? And pretty much every time, they would match it. And so that was a means of sort of getting the compensation of switching without actually switching. Now, where I made real money, where I made real money in academia was I used it as a platform for writing books, starting an analytics company or business intelligence company called L2, and to develop a very lucrative sideline business in media, specifically speaking. And I mentioned newsletters and podcasts. So it was an incredible platform. And what a university is, in my view, it's a good living for tenured professors. It can be a great living if you use it as a platform.

• 16:12Scott Galloway?

  The top 10 or 15 professors at any business school are making seven figures plus. But they're making it because they use the university as a platform. They either start advising hedge funds, or they start their own hedge fund, or they start a small consulting firm, or they start writing books. So, long-winded way of saying, for me, it has been outstanding. It is the worst paying job in the world for the first five years. But if you leverage the platform, it can be the best paying job in terms of return on time, in terms of your ability to do something you're really interested in, and also the psychic return you get. I think it's wonderful that you decided to get involved in academia. It has been hugely rewarding for me. I think you're on the right track now. Just put together a syllabus and go get assigned a class at a university. Thanks very much.

• 16:57Scott Galloway?

  We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us.

• 17:04Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from NetSuite. They say every day your business is late to AI, you might fall two days behind. So how do you keep up with the competition when they're only moving faster? Enter NetSuite Next. You probably know NetSuite, the AI-powered business management suite that securely connects all your data. It's a unified suite that brings your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into a single source of truth, trusted by over 44,000 customers. NetSuite Next is the next big leap in how business gets done, because AI is built into everything you do. It automatically surfaces customer insights throughout your day. AI agents work alongside you to solve problems and handle routine work. And anytime you have questions about anything, you can ask, just like you're having a conversation with a colleague.

• 17:48Scott Galloway?

  NetSuite is customized for a wide range of industries, so it supports the way your business truly works. Whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions, it's time for NetSuite Next, where your business meets AI. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get our free business guide, Aligning for the Agentic Era: How AI is Changing Everyday Work, at netsuite.com/profg. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com/profg. netsuite.com/profg.

• 18:21Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Upwork. Trying to scale your business? At some point, you're probably going to hit a point where you need some help. Sometimes the best way to break through that is bringing in the right talent at the right time. Upwork can help. Upwork is a one-stop platform where you can find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across more than 125 categories. Whether you need specialized skills for a single project or extra support to keep up with demand, it's easy to connect with experienced professionals, review their work, and find the right fit. You can move faster without taking on the commitment of full-time hires. And for businesses that need the very best talent, Upwork Business Plus provides access to the top 1% of freelancers on the platform. AI-powered matching connects you with qualified candidates in under six hours, cutting down the time spent searching.

• 19:05Scott Galloway?

  Upwork also takes care of contracts, payments, and other administrative tasks, so you can spend less time managing logistics and more time focused on what's next. Visit upwork.com/profg right now and post your job for free. That's upwork.com/profg to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's upwork.com/profg. upwork.com/profg.

• 19:35Scott Galloway?

  Welcome back. Question number three.

• 19:37Speaker 04

  Hey Prof G, thank you for everything you do with your pods and thank you for taking this question. My name is Ken. I'm in my late 30s. I have two young kids with my wife and I'm finishing my 13th year as a public school teacher. I've spent much of my adult life pursuing achievement. Three years ago, I almost left teaching. I was in a position that I did not have excitement for anymore. I was bored. I felt unchallenged and I was ready for something new. Now thankfully, something opened up at our high school and I now teach high school business and I really do like it. It's given me a renewed focus on education. I do feel I'm making an impact all over again, but I can't shake the feeling that this too shall pass and I'll be ready to move on in a few years.

• 20:20Speaker 04

  You started many businesses throughout your life, one after another, and I ask, how do you balance seeking more and embracing contentment? I have a good job. It pays well compared to a lot of teacher salaries across the country. I have about nine weeks off in the summer, good benefits, a pension, but I'm still thinking, what's next for me? Is there more for me or do I stay here? Do I stay in this position? How do you balance pursuing more and or being content with what you have? Thanks again for everything you do.

• 20:54Scott Galloway?

  Oh Ken, I mean, first of all, a lot of teaching questions. Ken, my brother, the, the balance between seeking things and taking risks and contentment, I mean, this is sort of, you know, this is kind of Marcus Aurelius stoicism. I mean, there's a lot here and my favorite philosopher, Sheryl Crow, said it's not getting what you want, but wanting what you got. Okay, so it sounds to me like you have a pretty rewarding career and you've been able to find additional challenges and reward in the same organization by just switching content and I don't, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to consistently evolve. What I would say though, is that I think it's always good to kind of say in five years, what would I like to be doing?

• 21:38Scott Galloway?

  Where would I like to be? And then reverse engineer back, what steps are required to get there, right? So in five years, where would I like to be professionally, economically, physically, from a relationships standpoint, and then? Kind of reverse engineer back to now around, all right, what are the steps? Where do I need to start? And it sounds to me like if you are doing well there, what I don't think you want to do, I wouldn't leave that job until you definitely have something better that you're really excited about. Why? You have the opportunity to conduct due diligence on another sector, another job. With nine weeks off in the summer, you may decide to have, and I don't like side hustles. I think people shouldn't have side hustles. I think they should, they should focus on their main hustle and take that time that we're spending

• 22:21Scott Galloway?

  on a side hustle and double down and give 110% to their main hustle. But anyways, having said that, if you decide, I'm really interested in entrepreneurship and I want to, and I want to buy a carpet cleaning company. There's a ton of boomers who are retiring, who have small businesses. I'm making this all up, but if you decide, oh, I want to be a writer, I want to write movies, or I'd like to be on Broadway, you have enough time in the summer, at least to conduct some diligence around something. And I would imagine your schedule is flexible enough that you can try before you buy, that you can date before you marry another career. Because the thing about education is that typically it's not a meritocracy. And that's bad in the sense that really talented young teachers don't make as much

• 23:06Scott Galloway?

  as older teachers who may not be as talented. Now, having said that, they reward tenure. And school districts are having such a tough time holding on to teachers that you're starting to see time-based bonuses. And it sounds like you may be in one of those districts that rewards tenure. And typically, the benefits are pretty good. There's usually a good retirement package at the end of the rainbow, if you will. And also, if you enjoy what you're doing, that means, you know, that counts for a lot. So what I would say is the following, I don't have any blinding insight here, but if you have been able to find to stay hungry at your school and you're doing well, then what I would suggest is there may be no reason why you won't continue to stay hungry there.

• 23:49Scott Galloway?

  And before you leave, do a little bit of try before you buy and spend that, those summer weeks doing something else before you give up what sounds like a great career. In terms of the larger existential question around contentment, Oh my gosh. Part of the reason we've evolved as a species is that we're very competitive and quite frankly, never satisfied. You know, people don't, Einstein didn't decide, okay, I'm satisfied. I've invented, I've provided enough insight. I don't, I don't have any more expectations on myself. I never thought I'd be this economically secure. And every day I wake up financially insecure and I want more. I never thought I'd, you know, have an opportunity to, to teach and now I'm bragging, but I'm still incredibly,

• 24:31Scott Galloway?

  I don't want to, the word isn't unsatisfied, but it's like vampires, supposedly vampires, when they have sex can never actually climax. I feel like smart, ambitious people never can actually find true contentment. That's the point, is that we stay hungry. I'd like to think that we find that contentment at some point in relationships and later on in life, but I think that's a matter of perspective and wisdom, which quite frankly, in your 30s, you probably don't have. Anyways, a lot here. Let me just wrap up. Let me just put a bow on it, Ken. Ken from undisclosed. It sounds like you have a great job. It sounds like you're good at it and you're in an industry that rewards tenure. So assume you're going to be able to progress there. Imagine maybe being in administration or a vice principal or a principal. Think if in fact you can use your flexibility for

• 25:14Scott Galloway?

  a side hustle. And I would not leave that job until you're pretty certain you have something that's a fantastic opportunity. Thanks for the good work that you can. We need thoughtful, talented people like you shaping tomorrow's youth. That's all for this episode. Again, if you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to [email protected]. This episode was produced by Caroline Shageran. Jennifer Sanchez is our associate producer and Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice,

• 25:58Scott Galloway?

  as read by George Hahn, and on Monday with our weekly markets show, 2024, bitches.

• 26:05Speaker 05

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• 26:35Speaker 06

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