How AI Is Transforming Business with Matt Leta

AI is no longer a distant promise. It is here, reshaping how businesses operate, compete, and grow. Beyond simple automation, today’s AI can analyze data at scale, generate strategies, streamline operations, and support decision-making at the highest level.

This shift is redefining business models across industries, and companies that fail to adapt risk losing not only efficiency but also their competitive edge in a market where speed and intelligence drive success.

From this transformation emerges a new mindset: becoming AI-native, where individuals and companies adopt AI as a natural part of how they think, work, and solve problems.

In this episode of Boston Leaders Voices, we sat down with Matt Leta to discuss what it means to become AI-native and how this shift is transforming business models, leadership, and the way teams create value.

Matt’s journey from startups to AI-native strategy

Matt Leta is an entrepreneur and digital leader with over two decades of experience building products and guiding organizations through change. Over the years, he has launched startups, worked with some of the world’s best-known companies, and led HOO KOO E KOO, a remote-first studio that partnered with more than 150 clients across industries. His journey eventually converged with artificial intelligence, leading to the creation of Future Works, an AI-native digital transformation agency. Today, as CEO of Future Works and the broader Future Group, Matt helps companies rethink their models, culture, and technology in order to thrive in the age of AI.

Rethinking How Companies Work, Lead, and Grow

Our conversation with Matt covered what it truly means to become AI-native, the organizational and cultural shifts required to get there, and the opportunities and risks for companies navigating this transition.

🎧 If you’d prefer to hear the full discussion, the podcast episode is available below. Otherwise, keep reading for a recap of the highlights.

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What It Really Means to Be AI-Native

Many assume that being AI-native simply means encouraging teams to use tools like ChatGPT. In reality, the concept goes much deeper. Matt explains that true AI-native organizations integrate artificial intelligence into the very foundation of their operations, products, and services.

“AI native means a company which has artificial intelligence integrated into the core of its operations, products, services… very different to just adding AI tools.”

This distinction sets the stage for understanding why the move toward AI-native enterprises represents more than a technology upgrade. Instead, it is a complete rethinking of how a business is built.

The 30-Day AI Experiment That Sparked a Company

AI is often seen as a helpful tool for everyday tasks, but Matt decided to take it one step further. What if AI could become a true business partner?

In our conversation, he shares how he set out on a 30-day experiment to build a company with AI by his side. The results went far beyond what he expected, opening the door to what later became Future Works.

“I ended up using AI as my thought partner forever since.”

Why Hourly Billing Won’t Survive the AI Era

AI is not only transforming how work gets done, it is also challenging how that work is valued. If one professional can be 10 or even 100 times more productive by using AI, traditional hourly billing models start to fall apart.

Matt argues that the future of professional services lies in moving away from charging for time and toward charging for value created.

Building Teams with an AI-First Mindset

For Matt, becoming AI-native is not just about technology, it is about people. Many companies still struggle with cultural resistance to artificial intelligence, and adoption only moves forward as fast as teams feel comfortable embracing it.

At Future Works, this has meant redefining values and surrounding projects with talent that is AI-positive, people eager to experiment and improve how they work with these tools.

“One of our core values is simply AI-native: do you choose to use AI before you delegate to people or solve it manually?”

Where Companies Should Start

For organizations still tied to legacy systems, Matt points out that becoming AI-native is less about technology itself and more about how change is led inside the company. He outlines three simple but critical steps:

1. Choose the right leader: Transformation needs someone with real authority, not just a symbolic role.
   
   
2. Start small, start now: Early, modest wins are better than waiting for the “perfect” project.
   
   
3. Keep going: The biggest risk is stopping too soon. Consistency makes progress possible.

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