Craig Leppan (Imbila)

AI-First vs. AI-Enabled: Why Your Choice Defines Your Future

1. Why Everyone's Suddenly Talking "AI-First" In recent weeks, CEOs from Box, Shopify, and Duolingo published strikingly similar "AI-first" memos. But beneath the buzzwords, they're mostly describing incremental evolution, not radical reinvention: * Box: CEO Aaron Levie asked his team, "What would

How AI is Transforming Travel: Smarter Adventures Start Now

Just as the internet disrupted travel agencies decades ago, AI is about to reshape travel again — but this time, even more profoundly. AI won’t just give you information; it will act as a personalized, always-on travel companion, planning, advising, and soon even booking for you. Based on real travel

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Manus AI: My First Day with the Autonomous Agent Redefining AI Research

What If ChatGPT Could Talk to Your Tools?

(It Can — Here’s Why That Changes Everything) Imagine this: You finish a client call and simply tell ChatGPT, “Send a follow-up email summarising our discussion and add the contact to my CRM under 'Warm Leads'.” Seconds later, it's done. You didn't open your

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Guest Post: Gen Z Isn’t Waiting for the Future — They’re Living It with AI

TED 2025: Humanity Reimagined or AI Apocalypse?

I watched the TED 2025: Humanity Reimagined livestream yesterday at the local TEDx Johannesburg event at Workshop17 Hyde Park. The theme—“What are humans for?”—set the tone for a day full of powerful ideas about how we might flourish in a future shaped by AI, biology, and creativity. While

The Form Factor: Why AI Is Reinventing the Most Overlooked Tool in Business

Forms are everywhere in business—from capturing leads and onboarding clients to gathering internal feedback and processing payments. But let’s face it: while they power most of our data workflows, they’re not always loved. They can feel clunky, slow, or disconnected from the systems we rely on. That’

Unlock ChatGPT's Real Power with AI Training from OpenAI

Hey everyone, At Imbila, we're all about making powerful tools—like AI—not just accessible, but actionable. We believe in leveling the playing field, empowering independent consultants and everyday innovators to harness technology that was once limited to tech giants. Many of us use ChatGPT to draft emails,

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Want an AI Assistant? Start with Your Process, Not the Tech

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The Microsoft Copilot Conundrum: Why Your Employees Still Love ChatGPT

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Supercharge Your Consulting Practice with Hunch: A Visual AI Workspace for Independent Consultants

5 AI-Powered Tools to Power Your Business Data Insights

A key value of AI is to enable non-technical users to accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently without needing deep technical expertise. While data manipulation, complex spreadsheets, pivot tables, and statistical analyses are enjoyable for some, they remain daunting for most. With these AI-powered tools, sophisticated data tasks become accessible and

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Ready for AI? Start with a Central Data Hub That Actually Works

Imbila Friday Update: Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro Ushers in a New AI Era

March has brought a major leap forward in the world of AI, and we’re here for it. This week, Google unveiled Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, its most advanced model yet—raising the bar for how AI can support creators, consultants, and businesses alike. At Imbila, we’re always

Image Generation Breakthroughs: What OpenAI and Google's Latest Advancements Mean for You

March 2025 isn't just another milestone—it's a leap forward. OpenAI and Google have each announced groundbreaking advancements in AI image generation. These aren't incremental upgrades; they reshape the way you, as independent consultants, entrepreneurs, and creators, will produce and leverage visual content. Here&

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Productivity, Thought Leadership, Future of Work

The Illusion of Expertise: Why the AI Productivity Divide Is Only Just Beginning

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The Evolution of Knowledge: Why Curiosity Drives Innovation Today

Smart, Simple, and Surprisingly Useful: How Tools Like ChatGPT & Gemini Can Empower Your Everyday Tasks

I was reminded on the weekend by a friend that there are still many people who may not be seeing how AI can help them, so this is for you! think of them as power tools for knowledge work !

Agent Automation: Unlocking the Power of Ontologies in Sales and Service

Palantir Technologies has developed an ontology framework that integrates data, logic, and actions into a cohesive, decision-centric model. ​

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Scaling AI for SMBs: Lessons from HubSpot’s CEO, Yamini Rangan

AI in Basic Education: What Teachers and Parents Need to Know

We used Google Gemini Deep Research to assess the AI landscape in basic education across South Africa and the United Kingdom. As South African parents, many of us have friends and children in both education systems, making this a topic of high interest for our readers

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From Small t to Big T: How Edge Innovations Can Drive Lasting AI Transformation

What’s the Fuss About Manus AI? The New Contender Versus ChatGPT

The AI landscape is in constant flux, and a new player is shaking things up—not by shocking the tech community, but by offering a fresh alternative to familiar names like ChatGPT. Enter Manus AI, an autonomous agent from a Chinese startup that’s stirring conversations about how AI assistants

A Conversation with Vanessa Raath: How AI is Reshaping Recruitment

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Vanessa Raath—a seasoned recruitment expert who humorously admits she “fell into” the recruitment industry by chance. Our conversation explored her intriguing journey, the evolving recruitment landscape, and how artificial intelligence (AI) is shaping the future of talent sourcing and training. Unexpected

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AI-Powered Legal Revolution: Lawyered Up Empowers South African SMEs