The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway - Fixing AI's Branding Problem + Advice for Anxious Public Speakers

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Scott Galloway explains why AI's reputation is cratering even as usage climbs — and why he blames Washington more than any single CEO — shares his hard-won tricks for beating stage fright and public-speaking nerves, and owns the political positions he's reversed on, from DEI and tax rates to supporting military action in Iran. Want to be featured in a future episode? Send a voice recording to [e-mail], or drop your question in the r/ScottGalloway subreddit. Plus, you can now call or text Scott a question at our new Office Hours hotline: ‪[phone]‬. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm pretty confident talking into a mic. Hey, I'm doing it right now. But home projects, I second-guess everything. Is that noise normal? Is that water damage? And who should I even call? That's where thumbtack comes in. Upload a photo or voice note,

and their AI-powered search helps diagnose the issue and match you with the right top-rated local pro. Instead of second-guessing or searching for hours, you get clarity and can hire the right pro with confidence. your next home project, try Thumbtack. They know homes. Hire the right pro today. This episode is brought to you by FIFA World Cup,

launch edition on Netflix. It's a fast, fluid game where your phone is the controller, and your TV is the stadium. You just launch it on your TV, scan the QR code with your phone, and boom, you're shooting and passing in seconds. Plus, it's included in your Netflix membership with zero extra costs.

Go to the Games tab, Play FIFA World Cup launch edition now, only on Netflix. Your summer travels deserve an upgrade. With select Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicles connected by OnStar, you can stream, game, and more on the go. Whether you're headed to a music festival or a cottage getaway, you can access hundreds of apps on Google Play right from your center display. Explore OnStar Tech today at OnStar.ca and discover how to take your summer to the next level.

OnStar. Better never stops. Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. 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 for next time,

you can send a voice recording to Office Hours at PropgMedia.com. Again, that's Office Hours of Propggeemedia.com Or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in our next episode. Let's get into it. Our first question comes from Reddit user Hot Singer 4266 who asks,

by the way, I've not seen or read these questions, questions. I love your takes on branding and 100% agree on the brand around AI has plummeted for good reason in recent months. Without specifically mentioning a model company, what recommendations would you make to improve the sentiment around AI? Stop asking for bailouts. Say you're going to age gate it. Don't lend your models to character AIs. Say you're not going to have porn or you're going to Agegate porn, maybe cooperate with a great university such as Berkeley or there's another great university in the Bay Area, University of San Francisco, get that little bit of dig at Stanford. So I would try and, I don't know, get Altman to shut the fuck up. He keeps saying dump shit.

So I don't know, just trying to be good citizens. I don't, I've said that I don't think it's these company's fault. I think that these companies are doing what they're supposed to be doing. They are doing whatever they can legally to maximize profits or revenue growth and shareholder value, which is all they care about and all they should care about. It's the government's job to regulate them. So I think it's not what these companies should do. It's what the government should be doing. In China, 75% of the citizens there feel good about AI in America, it's the opposite, because there's a general sense that they can trust their government there. They've put in age limits. They've put in job protection. So people feel optimistic about AI's upside and aren't worried about the downside. Whereas in the U.S., we have people including Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O'Leary, who I actually have enjoyed, I've enjoyed, I've enjoyed the discourse. He is exactly the wrong person for these data centers. And there's a general feel that there's going to be another bailout of these companies who want to hold on to their $800 billion plus.

evaluations despite the fact they're spending against evaluation or spending against a future of demand, which isn't materializing. So I would say AI has become this giant bet by the administration, and it's gotten so frothy, and so far the kind of indications of AI are, it seems like some people are getting very rich, and all I know is supposedly my electricity bills are going to go up. I think this is more the fault of the government than it is the specific company. Sam Malman has made some stupid tone-deaf statements, but, you know, welcome to being a CEO. But I think it's the externalities of the notion that they haven't positioned it correctly. Because if you think about, I mean, the AI framing is pretty ugly and, or the accurate framing, and it's the following, that these

companies are essentially ingesting the entirety of the world's written work. They are then strip mining it and selling it back to the people. And they've done the without the consent or compensation of the people whose work they're borrowing or stealing, and then they strip mine it and sell it back to the people who are about to be laid off because of what AI is doing. That's just not a great narrative.

So I think that they should be working with the government to create trust around employment. I think all the catastrophizing they've been doing, this is something they can do. Stop catastrophizing and telling and stop saying this is more powerful the nuclear bombs because if it is, it should be regulated. We wouldn't let Oppenheimer sell bombs into China or into Mexico talk about the upside more and then I just think the senior

management here has done a really shitty job. And all of the discussion around the AI job apocalypse from Dario and Sam, so far it's not happening. And also it feels more like a fundraising tactic to justify the token spend at companies looking for efficiencies, which is Latin for layoffs. So some tone-deaf statements from the companies, be more concerned proactively about some of the harms. Some of it is unfair. Actually, AI, interesting enough, is a bit of a moderating force. Social media takes people to the polls.

What's interesting, I find fascinating about AI. It's actually moderating. It creates more centrist. But I think the decline in the brand that is AI is mostly about them getting out over their skis and creating an environment where it fills it very much a bubble and similar to technology. The future is here. but it's just not evenly distributed. But I think the person who's really fucked up AI,

the brand, is the president, by not giving people any sense that it's a fair game, surrounding all these people at the White House, talks of a bailout, talks of an investment, and no regulation. It just feels like here we go again, and the government is now a giant bet on AI that's responsible for 93% of GDP growth,

75% of earnings growth. So people think, okay, people are getting rich, but I'm not one of them, and my electricity bills are supposedly going to go up, and these individuals don't seem that concerned with the labor force. Longwooded way of saying, I don't really know, but I think the brand has more to do with public policy than anything the individual CEOs are saying themselves. Journalist Jasmine's son defined AI populism as a worldview in which AI is viewed not only as a normal technology, but as an elite political project to be resisted. Hmm. The core problem, the backlash against AI, is diffused across many companies and many harm simultaneously. Jobs, energy, misinformation, kids, creative displacement. There's no single actor who can earn back trust on behalf of the entire category. I think that's really insightful. According to 2026, NBC poll, 46% of registered voters hold negative feelings toward AI versus only 26% positive. According to Pew, only 10% of U.S. adults say they're more excited than concerned about AI in daily life. 50% say they're more concerned than excited. from 37% of 2021. The contradiction here is that despite the fact trust is declining, usage is actually up.

Two-thirds of people globally use AI regularly, but only a half are willing to trust it. 39% in advanced economy. Since 2022, willingness to rely on AI has fallen from 52% to 43% even as adoption has surged. What's the model of the benchmark? Nuclear, right? In 2019, the Chevro-Americans who view nuclear power plants is unsafe,

overtook those who viewed them as safe, the first time in Gallup's decade-long trend. In the same year, support for nuclear power fell to 49 percent below the 62 percent record high from 2010. Then they recovered, not through a PR campaign, but through necessity. By 2025, support for nuclear reached 61 percent just shy of the 2010 record as major companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon pledged to expand nuclear power to meet surging. Wait for it. AI data center energy demand. A 2025 industry survey found that among people who feel very well informed about nuclear energy, those strongly favorable outnumber, those strongly opposed, five to one. And some, nuclear did get liked back into, you know,

the Cool Kids Club. It got needed back into favor and understanding followed. Another analogy, the meta and Cambridge Analytica scandal, belief that Facebook was committed to privacy, fell from 79% to 28, shocked it's that high. And the usage barely moved. Facebook's monthly campaign active users grew 2%. engagement dropped 20% after April 2018, but the user base itself kept growing. In some, a lot of the trust makes for great headline news, but it doesn't really have much of an impact oftentimes on the economics and the shareholder value. I think the word is out that Mark Zuckerberg may not be concerned with the well-being of your children, but the only brand reputation he needs to cement is

someone who increases earnings and increases the share price. That's the ultimate brand in a capitalist society. So I don't know if anything's going to change here. And the weird thing is from a stock perspective, I'm not sure it needs to change. This data center build out will not happen at the same rate for a lot of reasons. I think demand is going to collapse, but also because the brand has been managed so poorly. Appreciate the question. Question number two also comes from Reddit. Boulder Maker says, hey Scott, my career has finally hit its stride. Okay, well done. and I've started to receive invites to speak at events and join panels at conferences. However, I've turned down more opportunities than I've accepted

because I find myself feeling extremely self-conscious and awkward in front of large crowds. I've shared this with a few people who assure me they couldn't tell, but it still feels like a major blocker on my potential. I'm so jealous of your incredible confidence, like ability, and ability to command a room when you speak. Do you have any advice or suggestions on how to calm the nerves? Thanks for all that you do, particularly around setting a positive vision for masculinity. As someone who didn't have a great role models,

it means law. You're being very generous. Thank you. So DLD, 2015, I get on stage. I start talking about trends. I feel weird. I start sweating. I start gulping for air and I thought I was having a heart attack. I wasn't. I was having a panic attack. I was about to go on Belmar for my first time. And I was trying to, as they pull the, he does his interview, then he comes back and says, And now on the panel, joined with Larry Wilmore and NYU Professor Sky Galloway, and the thing actually physically moves. And as it was rushing forward, I started swallowing hard because I was worried I was going to throw up. I was so nervous.

So boss, panic attacks, being nervous, that's just part of it. A couple things I do. One, you know, try and prepare, try and come up if you have the benefit of slides, go through the slides such that you feel like you are, you get more confident, and you're excited to give the presentation. I mean, preparation doesn't absorb some anxiety. Let me summarize. Yeah, welcome to public speaking.

You're going to get nervous. Everyone gets nervous. There's some mental tricks. Imagine there's one friend you know in the front seat and you're speaking with that friend. On a more meta level, no one cares. Even if you were to have a panic attack, everyone goes, oh, he's having a panic attack,

and then they go back to thinking about themselves. preparing such that you feel really confident about it and you have slides that kind of help you kind of get through it or frame it. If your doctor recommends it or you feel like it helps, beta blockers, I'm not going to recommend alcohol. I'm just telling you authentically that's helped me a couple times, not a lot, but like a beer before I speak. And recognizing that you are more like people than you aren't. The majority of people who get up in front of people get very nervous. So time, practice, see what hacks work for you, and forcing yourself to do as much of this as possible, because ultimately, I speak about, I don't know, 40 or 50 times a year in front

of crowds ranging from the board of directors to 10,000 people. And every year, the likelihood I'm going to have a panic attack seems to go down. Also, a weird thing, I tried to reverse engineer, I did some data around it. I get about one every two years, three years. Jetlag. So if you have a big speech, try and get there a day early. Also, I found working out the morning helps, sweating, getting some sunlight. So I don't know. I don't know if I have a solver other than to tell you, you're not alone, my brother. Thanks for the question.

We'll be right back after a quick break. Support for the show comes from Upwork. Here's the thing about scaling your business. It doesn't happen in a chamber. You'll eventually reach points where hiring quick expert help isn't just necessary. It's the key to unlocking new growth. that, you can turn to Upwork. Upwork is a one-stop platform to find hire and pay expert freelancers across more than 125 categories. Find talent and start filling those skill gaps, launch projects faster,

and scale support up or down without committing to full-time headcount. You can browse profiles, review people's best work, and get help scoping the role, hire confidently while sticking to your timeline. Upwork also has business plus, which lets you access the top 1% of talent on Upwork. With AI-powered short-listing, you'll get matched to the right freelancer in just under six hours. No more endless searching, and when it comes to operational stuff like contracts and payments, Upwork has a handle on all of it. That way, you can actually spend more time planning your next move. Visit Upwork.com slash PropG right now and post your job for free.

That's Upwork.com slash prop G to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's UPWORK.com slash propG. Upwork.com slash PropG. support for the show comes from Shopify, so you finally landed on that million-dollar idea for a business. Congratulations, the hard part is over, especially if you make the smart move and use tools that were designed to make running a business easier. Enter Shopify. Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, from household names including Mattel and Jim Sharp to small businesses just getting started. You can choose from hundreds of beautiful templates that you can customize to match your brand.

Set up as fast with built-in AI tools that write product descriptions and health. and help you edit product photos. Let Shopify be your commerce expert with world-class expertise in everything for managing inventory to international shipping, to processing returns and beyond. As you grow, Shopify grows with you. That means you can handle more orders, expand to new markets, and do it all from the same dashboard. Plus, Shopify gives you everything you need to sell online and in-person.

With Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business. So go make it one. Start your free trial at Shopify.com slash PropG. That's Shopify.com slash propG. Shopify.com slash prop G. Support for the show comes from IM8. With afternoon meetings to attend and end-of-day deadlines to hit,

trying to find the energy to finish the day can be a challenge. So if you're looking for a little boost to power you through it, complete with all the nutrients you'd need in a day, try IM8. IM8 is the way, to simplify your supplement routine once and for all.

In a single drink, it was formulated to replace 16 separate supplements. And instead of paying an arm and a leg for it, it only costs you $2.61 a day. I have tried IM8. I personally love it. I drink it before I work out. It feels hydrating. It makes me feel healthy.

And so for that reason, I would highly recommend it. Go to IM8health.com slash profg right now or click on the link in the description and use code prof. for a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets plus 10% off your order. That's code ProfG at IM8health.com slash ProfG. That's Code Profge at IM8health.com slash profg. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Welcome back. Question number three comes from Jake VV. What is the political stance or take that you feel strongly about that you realize now, was wrong or misinformed. Oh, God, we need a bigger boat. I think I grew up, there's a bunch of them, or they've softened or modulated, I would say. DEI, I used to think that DEI,

as a progressive, you kind of sign up or a conservative, you sign up for a certain narrative. I've now come to believe that DEI is no longer effective. 60 years ago, 12 black people at Princeton, Harvard, and Yale combined, now 54% of Harvard identifies as non-white. I think it causes a lot of problems. problems, accidental racism, people stereotype, this person doesn't deserve to get in here. So I think affirmative action should be based on, I think it should have an adversity score.

And that is, Trevor Noah and Barack Obama's kids don't need help, but some white kid in Appalachia, whose father's incarcerated and mother's addicted, that person should get a hand up. So I believe in affirmative action, I just think that usually DEI, when you have a DEI department, it usually means. you're in already one of the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive places. So I've kind of changed my mind in that. I used to think that tax rates shouldn't be above 40 or 50 percent, that would disincentivize people and the capitalism and profit. I now think if you make, say, over $10 million dollars or you're, I just don't see any reason why we shouldn't have 50, 60, 70 percent tax rates, because the idea of a tax is that it's not that taxing, above a certain amount of money, you get no happiness, but that money used for whatever was universal pre-K or universal

health care can make a lot of people much happier. So I've become much more progressive or much more, believing in a much stronger progressive tax rate. And I still believe in an assault ban, an absolute assault ban, excuse me, assault weapons ban. I do understand now a little bit more about the importance of the Second Amendment, which is weird for me.

I just think I wanted, you know, I've both said I'd like to ban all guns. I don't, I think I've softened on that, recognizing, It's kind of part of our heritage, and most licensed trained gun owners are actually very responsible. I've changed on that. I think we should lower the drinking age. I probably wouldn't have said that a few years ago. Yeah, I used to think, you know, free trade, total maximalist. Now I think that there's probably asymmetric trade, such as with China, where we need tariffs.

I think that's one of the few places that Trump got right, not on tariffs, but on the need or recognizing the asymmetry of trade around China. I think I've just modulated. I've kind of come to the center a little bit, a little bit more. Anyways, I don't, there's no like one thing I've done a 180 on, so I'm trying to think about it. Something else I've changed my mind on is not free speech, but I think anonymity is something online.

I used to see a lot of value, and that I think that there should be verified anonymity. In other words, if you want an anonymous account on Facebook or on Instagram, it should be verified that the person behind it is an actual person. So I don't, I think, you know, that privacy or anonymity is overdone. And I used to be a total free speech anonymity zeal it. And I've softened on that and think that if you can put an anonymous call to child services is saying that Mayor Pete across the street is abusing his children,

and a team shows up and separates them for their children, that they have an obligation to investigate the people who made the call. And if, in fact, they made the call for reasons that are not valid because they're trying to take revenge of these people who don't believe in their lifestyle, that those people should be prosecuted. In some, I don't think the Internet has a free speech problem. I think it has an accountability problem.

So I've changed my mind on a decent number of policies. I supported military action in Iran, or the most recent one. I thought that there was a chance to topple the regime, the weakening their Navy, their missile launch capability, and giving what I thought was a real likelihood that the people would rise up and kick out, who I think has been an incredibly oppressive regime that's created instability.

What I realize now was that this administration and this situation, I vastly oversimplified it and that this was just a terrible idea. So I don't know if my stance has changed, but there's just not getting around it. Those of us who thought it was a good idea were wrong. And to not recognize the choke point of the Strait of Hormuz, to not recognize the complexity of this situation, to not recognize the incompetence of the person making these decisions,

specifically Trump and Secretary Hagsath. So I don't know if I changed my view, but I definitely got that wrong, if you will. need to own it. Anyways, I appreciate the questions. Really, maybe we kind of stop and thank. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to office hours of profitjumedia.com.

Again, that's office hours of property media.com. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez and Laura Janair. Cameric is our social producer. Brad Williams is our editor. And Drew Burroughs is our technical director. Thank you for listening.

to the Prophechipod from Property Media.