Top AI Tools, Ideas, and Events in Little Rock: Connect, Build, and Grow - Zac Morris

Reframing Identity, Creativity, and Agency in the Age of AI

Earlier this year, a captivating speaker—part cybersecurity veteran, part artist, part futurist—took the stage in Little Rock to deliver one of the most powerful and relatable talks on AI I’ve heard to date. Drawing from his deep experience at Walmart and his journey launching an independent innovation studio, he walked the audience through the rapidly shifting tech landscape, not by focusing on technical specs or hype, but by inviting us to reframe our relationship with technology itself.

The heart of the talk wasn't about GPT-4 vs. Claude or the latest benchmark scores. It was about you—your identity, your creativity, your agency.

From Tools to Craftsmanship The speaker opened with a simple but resonant idea: technology has become more conversational, more human. And because of that, everyone—regardless of background—now has the opportunity to be a "craftsperson" in technology. It’s no longer a matter of coding prowess. It’s about curiosity, language, and imagination.

We’re not limited to static boxes like Windows or macOS anymore. We're stepping into an ecosystem of dynamic, purpose-built tools—Swiss army knives and scalpels—that can be combined to suit any need. “This is your palette,” he said, “not just for work, but for life.”

Fold Time. Make Space. He introduced one of the most practical and hopeful ideas of the day: folding time. By offloading repetitive tasks and generating high-resolution outputs faster than ever, we can make room for the deeper, more meaningful parts of our work—and our lives. From resurrecting a decade-old doodle into an animated short film in 45 minutes to turning a napkin sketch into a business plan in a single conversation, the possibilities are now exponential.

He encouraged the audience to revisit the “editing room floor” of their own ideas. With today’s tools, many of the reasons we used to abandon good ideas—time, cost, complexity—have simply evaporated.

Everyone is a Technologist Now One of the most empowering takeaways was a call to reframe our identities. “If you’ve got a smartphone in your pocket, you’re already a technologist,” he said. It’s not about whether you write code. It’s about how you think, how you problem-solve, how you interact with the world.

He spoke about using tools like ChatGPT or Claude not just to get answers but to have meaningful, iterative conversations—treating them as collaborators. “You’re a natural language programmer,” he told the crowd. “That’s your superpower.”

Agents vs. Bots: The Next Leap Much of the conversation turned to the next frontier: AI agents. While many of us have used bots—AI systems that generate text or answer questions—agents are tools with agency. They can act, integrate, automate. Instead of just replying to prompts, they can restructure your calendar, triage business processes, or coordinate workflows across tools.

He showed a diagram for building AI agents and encouraged the audience to take a photo of it and feed it into an AI model—turning it into a plan tailored to their business on the spot. This is how we share software now, he explained: visually, conversationally, iteratively.

AI as Human Amplifier Perhaps most memorably, he argued that AI isn’t here to replace us—it’s here to amplify the most human parts of us. Creativity. Emotional intelligence. Critical thinking. He reminded the audience that AI systems learn from us. “We’re not training them to be machines,” he said. “We’re training them to be more human.”

In fact, the best AI tools reward those who speak boldly, specifically, and with imagination. Not unlike a good teacher or teammate.

The Takeaway: Ask Better Questions The recurring message was clear: those who thrive in this next phase won’t necessarily be the best coders or data scientists. They’ll be the best communicators, questioners, and collaborators.

If you can dream it, you can start building it—right now. Even if it’s just a doodle. Even if it’s just a thought fragment.

Because we’ve entered a new era, and it’s one where the bold, the curious, and the conversational will lead.