Mind & Machine Fort Worth: AI for Business Leaders - October 7, 2026

Mind & Machine Fort Worth

Presents: What We Know Now: Four Fort Worth Leaders on Getting AI Right

Is there a right way to Adopt AI, or does every business have to find it's own?

Every business adopting AI arrives at the same questions from a different direction. What is worth trying, what it will take, and how you know when something is working. In this panel, four Tarrant County leaders talk about what they've learned building AI, buying it, deploying it, and advising the companies that sell it. Each one brings a project that did not go as planned and the thinking that got them to something that did.

About the Panel:

Tobalo Torres-Valderas is the founder of Y2, a AI intelligence worksapce for global investors, analysts, and researchers. He has lead engineering teams delivering digital transformation, including multi-model AI agents and document processing pipelines for regulated industries, work that has saved clients more than a thousand hours. He also advises companies on AI product strategy and technical due diligence. Before that he spent six years at Oracle as a Solutions Architect, publishing on AI at the edge. He founded Fort Worth DAO, which does civic technology and digital ownership education, and coaches entrepreneurs on AI and software at TechFW.

Paulo Orosz is Branch President of RobotLAB DFW West, bringing commercial robotics and AI to businesses from Fort Worth to Denton. He deploys working robots into restaurants, hotels, assisted living communities, schools, and government offices. He has spoken publicly about the human side of automation, including the training and communication that determine whether a deployment succeeds. Before robotics he spent years at Ericsson, including Head of Center of Excellence Operations.

TJ Markland is General Manager of Payments at Raptor Technologies, where he leads the payments platform. Raptor's school safety software is used by more than 60,000 K-12 schools. His work involves student data and school payments, which shapes how he approaches AI. He was CEO of PayK12, which grew to more than 5,000 administrators across 23 states before Raptor acquired it in 2024. He is also an AI consultant and executive coach who builds complex AI agents, both inside his organization and for clients, including nonprofits and the firms that serve them.

Jeffrey O. Casanova is founder of Sales Athlete Co., where he works with small and mid-sized businesses and nonprofits on go-to-market strategy. He is also a business development partner across Galaxy Unmanned Systems, Longhorn Motorsports, and Mstro, and coaches entrepreneurs at TechFW, Fort Worth's technology incubator. His work sits at a rare angle on AI, advising the companies building it on who to sell to, how to define an ideal customer, and how to get an MVP into a buyer's hands. He has watched founders spend months aimed at the wrong customer.

Sponsors:

Scott Simson is the CEO and founder of Raffiti Media, a done-for-you YouTube agency with a team of nearly 20 people. His work has generated more than 1 billion views, and his family YouTube channel has more than 400,000 subscribers. He is also the founder of AI Marketing World, coming to the Fairmont Dallas October 21 to 24, 2026, where he joins a speaker lineup headlined by ClickFunnels founder Russell Brunson.

EaaS AI is a boutique AI consulting and training firm in Fort Worth, founded in 2023 with a human-first approach by Rachael Leventhal Garnett. EaaS AI builds AI super agents that take over the bottlenecks in your business that have you pulling your hair and keeping your organization from achieving its mission. Rachael also leads workshops, delivers trainings, and guides teams through AI governance policies that define where AI and automation fit.

Moderator: Rachael Leventhal Garnett

Rachael Leventhal Garnett started EaaS AI in 2023, a Fort Worth firm offering boutique AI consulting and training with a human-first approach. Her team builds AI systems, leads workshops, and delivers training inside organizations. She works alongside leadership teams on AI governance policies and where AI and automation fit in their operations. She's a founding member of Mind & Machine and leads the Fort Worth chapter with a Tarrant County leadership team, a four-time international best-selling author, and a national speaker who explains complex tech without the jargon.