An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Voice Synthesis: We use AI to generate natural-sounding voice-overs in multiple languages and accents. This has allowed us to serve a global customer base without the need for multiple voice actors for each project.
In the ever-evolving and never-ending landscape of business, staying ahead of the curve is a prerequisite for success. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone from being a futuristic concept to a daily business tool that executives can’t ignore. In this interview series, we would like to talk with business leaders who’ve successfully integrated A.I. into their operations, transforming their companies in the process. I had the pleasure of interviewing Alex Persky-Stern.
Alex Persky-Stern has been the CEO of Waymark since June 2022. He leads the company’s efforts to leverage generative AI to make video production radically easy and available to everyone.
Under Persky-Stern, Waymark has signed banner deals with media names like The E.W. Scripps Company, FOX TV Stations, Spectrum Reach, Gray Television and more. Persky-Stern has also overseen Waymark’s International expansion through partnerships in Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
During his leadership, the company has been featured in major publications as a leader in AI video and was listed as one of the Fastest Growing Companies in the USA by the Financial Times.
As a tech enthusiast, AI evangelist and entrepreneur, Alex is always looking for ways to leverage the latest in technological advancement to solve real business problems in the rapidly changing media industry. Alex is a Venture for America Fellow and holds a BA in Arts, Math-Economics from Wesleyan University.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! To set the stage, tell us briefly about your childhood and background.
I was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’ve always loved small business and entrepreneurship, beginning with a lawn care business that a friend and I started in middle school. That carried through to several social entrepreneurship and small business ventures in college, including a micro-finance organization and a small business consulting group. After school, that led me to my first startup in Detroit where I’ve been for the last 11 years.
What were the early challenges you faced in your career, and how did they shape your approach to leadership?
I love people, and especially early in my career I tended to have a hard time delivering critical feedback. Over time, I learned that directness can still be kind and having authentic, transparent communication built on trusting relationships is immeasurably more valuable.
We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one mistake that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?
There are lots of great moments of messing up, learning, and trying again, but I’d say the most important thread of my mistakes was trying to do too much. Overcomplicating, chasing every exciting new idea, and just putting in longer and longer days to try to manage it all. That’s led me to a place where the two things I preach most often are “Focus” and “Energy”.
Focus means knowing where you’re headed: make your bets and keep your eye on them, even when the going gets tough. Energy means pursuing your focus with enthusiasm: high quality hours are exponentially more valuable than exhausted hours, so organize your time and work to maximize your energy, rather than just measuring how long your days are. At Waymark, we try to practice that both individually and systemically.
A.I. is a big leap for many businesses. When and what first sparked your interest in incorporating it into your operations?
Our interest in AI at Waymark actually predates the recent generative AI explosion. We’d already been building tools to help small businesses reach new potential audiences. But the real spark came when we saw the potential of large language models to revolutionize the creative process. We realized that AI could dramatically speed up and simplify video production, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes. That’s when we dove headfirst into developing our own tool specifically for video creation.
AI can be a game-changer for individuals and their responsibilities. Can you share how you personally use AI and what are your go-to resources or tools?
You know, it’s tempting to rattle off a list of AI tools I use personally, but I don’t think that would be particularly useful. The reality is, my use of AI is deeply intertwined with the specific challenges we’re tackling at Waymark. What works for me might not be relevant for someone in a different industry or facing different problems. There’s no one-size-fits-all “best” AI tool out there. It’s really about finding the right solution for the specific problem you’re trying to solve. At Waymark, we’ve developed our own suite of fine-tuned AI models because that’s what our unique challenges in video production demanded. I think the key is to start with the problem you’re trying to solve, not with the technology. Ask yourself: What’s the most time-consuming or challenging part of your work? What tasks do you wish you could do faster or more efficiently? Once you’ve identified those pain points, then you can start exploring AI tools that might help address them.
On the flip side, what challenges or setbacks have you encountered while implementing A.I. into your company?
One of the biggest challenges for us has been integrating emerging AI capabilities into our system without disrupting our core operations. It’s a delicate balance of innovation and stability. Staying on top of the rapidly evolving AI landscape while maintaining our focus has been tough. There’s always a new model or technique that seems promising, but we have to be disciplined about what we pursue.
Let’s dig into this further. Can you share the top 5 A.I. tools or different ways you’re integrating AI into your business? What specific functions do they serve and what kind of result have you seen so far? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
Rather than listing specific tools, I think it’s more valuable to discuss the key areas where we’ve integrated AI at Waymark to solve our unique challenges in video production. Here are three ways we’re using AI to transform our business:
- Script Generation: We’ve developed AI models that can create compelling video scripts for commercials from minimal input. For instance, a local florist might input their website, and our AI generates a full 30-second commercial script. This has dramatically reduced the time it takes to start a video project.
- Visual Asset Curation: Our AI analyzes scripts and automatically selects appropriate visuals from a brand’s website and from our library of licensed stock assets. This used to be a time-consuming manual process, but now it’s done in seconds, allowing a creative team to focus on fine-tuning and customization.
- Voice Synthesis: We use AI to generate natural-sounding voice-overs in multiple languages and accents. This has allowed us to serve a global customer base without the need for multiple voice actors for each project.
These AI integrations aren’t off-the-shelf solutions, but custom-developed capabilities designed to address our specific needs in video production. The results have been transformative — we’ve seen production times cut by up to 90%, and we’re able to offer high-quality video production at a price point that was previously impossible.
The key takeaway here is that the most effective AI solutions are often custom-built to address specific business challenges. While there are many great general-purpose AI tools out there, the real power of AI comes from tailoring it to your unique needs and integrating it deeply into your workflows.
Looking ahead, what’s on the horizon in the world of AI that people should know about? What do you see happening in the next 3–5 years? I would love to hear your best prediction.
I think we’re going to see a massive democratization of creative tools. AI will make high-quality production accessible to anyone with an idea, regardless of their technical skills or budget.
If you had to pick just one AI tool that you feel is essential, one that you haven’t mentioned yet, which would it be and why?
Every company is adding AI to their product — in some cases it can be comical how much it’s shoved into unnecessary places. But I typically find that the most valuable “AI tools” are actually the tools we were using already. That said, the new AI tool that I use the most is Descript — they’ve done a wonderful job making it easy to record and edit videos with useful AI tools for transcribing and editing. I use it for both internal and external comms and would highly recommend.
For the uninitiated, what advice would you give someone looking to integrate AI into their business and doesn’t know where to start?
Start small and focus on a specific problem you’re trying to solve. Don’t try to overhaul your entire business with AI overnight. Begin by identifying repetitive, time-consuming tasks that could benefit from automation. Then, explore AI tools that address those specific needs. It’s also crucial to involve your team in the process. They often have the best insights into where AI could be most beneficial. And remember, implementing AI is a learning process. Be prepared to experiment, iterate, and sometimes fail. The key is to stay curious and keep pushing forward.
Where can our readers follow you to learn more about leveraging A.I. in the business world?
You can follow me on LinkedIn where I regularly share insights about AI in business and video production. For more specific updates about how we’re using AI at Waymark, check out waymark.com!
This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
Alex Persky-Stern Of Waymark: How We Leveraged AI To Take Our Company To The Next Level was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.