Episode Details

What happens when a software company that's been around for two decades goes all-in on AI? Rahul Asanikar, co-founder of Benchmark IT, sits down with Jonathan Kersting at the Huntington Bank Studios to unpack the real, measurable ROI behind AI investments — not the hype, but the tools, strategies, and margins that are actually moving the needle.

Rahul shares how Benchmark IT evolved from building websites and mobile apps into a full-stack AI consulting firm helping financial services, healthcare, and product companies build AI-first solutions. He walks through real tools they've shipped — including Laibel, an AI system that runs hundreds of compliance checks on product labels in seconds, and a document extraction platform that reclaimed 80 hours a month for teams buried in paperwork.

Then the conversation goes deeper: the concept of a Company AI Brain — a system that ingests every meeting, email, project schedule, and public data point, then surfaces threats and opportunities before anyone asks. Rahul shares a story where the AI brain flagged a parent company's ERP consolidation initiative — a threat that could have cost them a client, but instead opened the door to five new contracts. He also breaks down how they use AI to generate 100,000 personalized outreach emails by researching each company's specific history — including product recalls — at a level that makes prospects ask, "How did you know this?"

We also cover why AI resistance fades when you give teams time to experiment, why Jensen Huang telling programmers to stop programming isn't crazy, and the one thing that hasn't changed in 21 years of business: trust.

Key Topics Covered:

• The journey from New York to Florida to Pittsburgh — and why Benchmark IT planted roots here
• What "full-stack AI" really means and why it's giving companies product-level margins
• Laibel: AI-powered label compliance that prevents lawsuits and product recalls
• Document data extraction: turning 80 hours of manual work into minutes
• The Company AI Brain: collecting your data, defining your objectives, surfacing insights
• Personalized outreach at scale — 100,000 companies, 100,000 tailored emails
• Why resistance to AI is often just a timing problem (and what changed last December)
• The unchanging core: trust, ROI metrics, and killing 18 bad ideas to find 2 good ones

The Pittsburgh Technology Council produced TechVibe to explore Pittsburgh's Technology and Innovation Ecosystem.