“If your focus group still needs pizza and a two-way mirror, you’re already outdated.”

In this episode of The AI CEO I sit down with Felipe Restrepo—CEO & co-founder of Odaptos—to unpack the first ‘empathy-enabled’ AI that reads micro-expressions, voice tone, and body language to predict a purchase eight seconds before it happens.

We talked about: • Why 90 % of customer truth is non-verbal—and how to capture it • Slashing research costs from $40K focus groups to a $400 AI sprint • The “camera-amnesia” signal that tells Odaptos you’ve forgotten you’re on film • Building a content engine straight from raw customer interviews (good-bye writer’s block) • The REAL future of AGI (hint: EQ > IQ) and which human skills become priceless • Ethical lines, biased data, and why regulated banks jumped in first

Whether you’re a product lead at a Fortune 500 or a bootstrapped founder chasing product–market fit, this conversation will change how you think about research, marketing, and the next wave of AI.

00:00 Intro — “Feelings vs. Words” 01:36 From France to Techstars: The origin of Odaptos 03:49 Emotions = Customer Experience Currency 08:05 Why focus groups fail (and what replaces them) 10:32 Industrializing research with AI 20:03 Case studies: Banks, insurers & 100× ROI 29:34 What emotional AI looks like in 2025 35:11 Secret sauce: Predicting a buy 8 s early 38:07 Building a moat in the age of copy-paste AI 42:16 Turning interviews into blogs, decks & ads 47:41 Zero-UI futures & “research agents” 53:36 Human skills that matter in 2030 57:26 Ethics, regulation & the path to EQ-GPT 1:04:43 Rapid-fire + final takeaways

• Emotion > Opinion – People love products for how they feel, not what they do.

• Affordable at Scale – 20 interviews for $400 means weekly iterations, not annual bets.

• 8-Second Window – Odaptos spots the precise moment intent flips to action.

• Content Flywheel – Customer voice → AI summary → ready-to-post copy in minutes.

• EQ-GPT – The next intelligence leap isn’t bigger models, it’s emotionally aware ones.

• Odaptos (Felipe’s company) – https://odaptos.com • Virgent AI (our show sponsor) – https://Virgent.ai • Felipe on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/felipelebrun/ • Seema Alexander on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/seemaalexander

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/seemaalexander Newsletter + consulting – https://www.disruptive.ceo/

If this episode sparked an aha-moment, tap 5 stars on Apple Podcasts and leave a one-sentence review—helps us land more game-changing guests like Felipe!