Leveling Up with AI: How Startups Like Goldcast Turn AI into ROI

As technological advancements progress, startups continue to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to gain a competitive advantage. AI is revolutionizing operations, enhancing efficiency, accelerating product innovation, and uncovering critical insights that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Rapidly becoming an essential component of the startup landscape, AI is opening new doors for innovation and growth. In this article, we’ll explore how startups integrate AI across different functions, the hurdles they encounter, and the strategic benefits it offers to early-stage companies striving for rapid and sustainable expansion.

Lauren Creedon, Chief Product Officer at Goldcast, has been leading their product vision since joining the team in August 2022, and has spearheaded their first AI product, Content Lab, which helps you repurpose long-form video into clips and social content. Lauren has over 14 years of leading and driving innovation in B2B tech, AI, video software, and high-growth startups, with a particular focus on building products that connect product development with go-to-market strategy. 

In this interview with Lauren, she discusses the application and use of AI today within startups, its efficiencies, and where we still need to ensure humans remain part of the AI process through oversight and creativity.

Startup Boston (SB): How have you seen AI used today?

Lauren Creedon (LC): I’ve seen AI really shine in two places so far: operational efficiency and content creation. People are using AI to automate tedious tasks - everything from sales call summaries to customer support ticket categorization - but also to scale content creation in ways that weren’t possible even 12 months ago. 

SB: Have you seen AI drive more opportunities or revenue?

(LC): Absolutely, especially on the marketing side. When you can repurpose and distribute more content faster, you capture more of your market’s attention - you gain their mindshare. AI is helping shorten the distance between engagement and conversion.

SB: Which areas have seen the best ROI with AI?

(LC): Content repurposing and sales enablement, hands down. Video and event content are rich assets that are typically underutilized. AI lets you atomize that content into tailored, on-brand assets for different channels and personas, without overloading your team. ROI comes from higher engagement rates, faster deal cycles, and more consistent pipeline generation.

SB: Do you use AI today?

(LC): I do, both personally and across our product workflows. At Goldcast, we integrate AI into our platform to help customers turn video content into highlights, social clips, and blog-ready transcripts. Personally, I use tools like Claude and ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas, draft outlines, and stay current on AI trends.

SB: Which departments should be using AI today, which should wait a little longer? Is there an appropriate timeline you see utilizing AI?

(LC): Today, marketing and sales should absolutely be leaning into AI - the efficiency gains and competitive edge are undeniable. Product and customer success can benefit too, but you need to be mindful of brand, voice, and trust factors. HR and finance should move more cautiously, given the stakes with bias and data privacy.

SB: Which tasks should lean or leverage AI today, and which should fall for humans -- Why? Are there outliers to these tasks? 

(LC): AI should own high-volume, repeatable tasks: summarizing calls, content repurposing, and data analysis. Humans should still handle relationship building, final editorial judgment, strategic decision-making, and creative concepting. That said, the best outcomes come from pairing AI speed with human oversight, connection, and creativity. 

SB: Which AI specific tools or products do you recommend for building an AI-Stack?

(LC): For content: Jasper, and Goldcast’s own AI-powered Content Lab. For research and knowledge management: Glean, Perplexity, and Notion AI. For sales enablement: Gong, Lavender, and Common Room. The key is to pilot tools against real workflows and measure impact - don’t chase hype.

SB: What resources do you leverage to stay up to date with the break-neck pace of the AI world?

(LC): I still learn best in person, hearing what’s working for other teams in my Boston tech community. I also spend time in product-led growth and AI Slack communities where operators share what’s actually working in practice. Podcasts are another great format for me. I love what MIT produces, such as the podcast “Me, Myself, and AI” about real-world use cases, and “In Machines We Trust” about the ethical concerns of AI. And finally, I’m a fan of following newsletters and personalities like Ben’s Bites, The Rundown AI, Lenny’s Podcast, and other folks in my network on LinkedIn.

SB: What is your best AI-pun?

(LC): What do you call an LLM that’s been trained on too much Shakespeare?...A Bard.

As Lauren Creedon emphasized, the real power of AI lies in its ability to supercharge operational efficiency and create new pathways for innovation. Startups today can’t afford to ignore AI’s role in accelerating growth, but they also can’t overlook the critical importance of human oversight and creativity.

By embracing AI for high-volume tasks and pairing it with human ingenuity for strategy, startups can create a formidable edge in an increasingly competitive landscape. Whether you’re just starting to experiment with AI or refining your existing stack, the key is to stay curious, test rigorously, and keep learning from real-world practices - just like Lauren and the team at Goldcast.

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About the author: Joe D'Agostino is a startup founder, developer, advisor, and active security practitioner. Today, he manages the product and application security team at an AI startup in Boston, MA. When he is not securing or building products, he enjoys spending time with his wife, their newborn daughter, and their dog, Josie.