Joe Tustin — Applied AI, Speaking & Building

Builder. Teacher. Writer. Denver, CO.

Joe Tustin builds AI tools, helps teams put AI to work, and teaches what he learns. He is Principal Technologist, Applied AI at Cyera, and speaks about AI adoption, agents, security, and the economics of AI. For speaking, advisory, or a conversation: hello@joetustin.com.

About

I build with AI, help teams put it to work, and teach what I learn.

In 2017 I quit my job and left to travel the world for over a year. I changed 85% of the plan along the way. The last seven months of it became a solo motorcycle ride from Denver to Ushuaia — 18,147 miles, 27 journals, one Daily Beast piece filed from inside the Nicaraguan uprising. Nine years later I fed my journals into Claude to help me decide what to do next. They decided for me.

I teach executives and the teams around them how AI actually works — how to move from answers to agents, how to ship without breaking things, how to build a practice that outlasts the hype. Today I am Principal Technologist for Applied AI at Cyera, helping teams put AI to work. The rest happens onstage, on a motorcycle, or in whatever room will have me.

Humans spent ninety years trying to make machines seem human. I'm learning to work with them as they are.

— Smokin' Robots, the thesis

What Joe builds

What Joe teaches

Speaking archive

Writing and features

Advisory and consulting

Off the clock

Travel journals

Frequently asked questions

Who is Joe Tustin?

Joe Tustin is a Denver-based AI teacher, keynote speaker, and writer. He is a Principal Technologist for Applied AI at Cyera, where he leads AI enablement; writes essays at Smokin' Robots; builds open-source AI tooling (MacRelay, TikTok Mirror); and rode a motorcycle 18,147 miles from Denver to Ushuaia in 2017–2018, keeping 27 journals along the way.

What does Joe Tustin teach?

Joe teaches executives and their teams how AI actually works — how to move from answers to agents, how to ship agents without breaking things, and how to build an AI practice that outlasts the hype. His talks cover AI economics and agent security. He also teaches the Executive AI Agent Curriculum.

What has Joe Tustin built?

Joe builds open-source and personal tools including MacRelay (an MCP server that gives AI native control of macOS), TikTok Mirror (multimodal embeddings and retention analytics for 260+ videos), Life Mirror (personal augmented cognition on Supabase), and a GTM Intelligence Platform with 60+ Claude Code commands.

How do I contact Joe Tustin?

Email hello@joetustin.com for speaking, advisory, or a conversation. Also reachable at TikTok @joetustin_, LinkedIn /in/joetustin, and GitHub /drbarq.

What is the Executive AI Agent Curriculum?

A 37-minute private workshop by Joe Tustin that takes executives from zero to independent agent workflows. Designed for busy leaders, not engineers. Delivered inside enterprises and private cohorts.

What does AI enablement mean in practice?

AI enablement is the function that turns an organization's intent to use AI into actual working systems — tooling, agent workflows, security governance, and the education that makes it stick. As a Principal Technologist for Applied AI at Cyera, Joe Tustin leads this function and teaches the pattern to other executives.

Contact

Email: hello@joetustin.com for speaking, advisory, or a conversation.