How to Build an AI-Native Team with Rytis Lauris of Omnisend

In this SmartMarketer episode, Omnisend CEO Rytis Lauris shares how his 216‑person organization is shifting toward an AI‑native culture. He explains that merely handing out premium ChatGPT or Gemini accounts never sparked real change; instead, leadership instituted a monthly "AI Day" where routine tasks are paused and every employee experiments with AI. This top‑down mandate creates dedicated time for hands‑on learning, rapid prototyping, and cross‑team collaboration, turning curiosity into actionable tools that directly impact daily workflows.

Lauris outlines six hard‑earned lessons, the first two emphasizing simplicity and product thinking. Teams built narrow‑focus agents—such as a sales follow‑up bot that transcribes calls, extracts promises, and drafts replies, and an influencer‑review tool that trims video‑approval time from ninety to twenty hours. These point‑solution assistants outperform sprawling, all‑purpose AI platforms because they integrate with familiar tools like Google Sheets and Slides. He also stresses that AI assistants must be treated as products: launch a minimum viable version, assign a human owner, collect feedback, and iterate continuously. Even high‑performing support bots, which now resolve 40 % of tickets, require full‑time supervisors to retrain models as underlying LLMs evolve.

For business leaders, the episode offers a pragmatic roadmap to embed AI without disrupting existing processes. By aligning AI tools with current workflows, companies capture immediate time savings, improve customer experience, and stay ahead of competitors rapidly adopting generative technologies. The key is to view AI as an employee—requiring onboarding, supervision, and ongoing improvement—rather than a one‑off project. This mindset shift not only reduces operational costs but also builds a resilient, AI‑augmented workforce ready for future innovations.