In a world increasingly divided by technology and AI, one group of tech executives has found a creative way to bridge the ever-widening gap of human disconnection by leveraging AI and creative networking to turn professional relationships into friendships.
Jonathan Bench, a lawyer and shareholder at Kirton McConkie, says that for too long, business networking has been confined to noisy bars and after parties. “It’s hard to communicate, and it’s hard to develop a deep relationship with someone there,” Bench says. He wanted to figure out a way to “develop more quality interactions with people” and rub shoulders with people interested in artificial intelligence, a topic he wanted to understand better.
When Utah Tech Week rolled around, Bench decided to host a casual, fun event instead of the more formal, transactional events he was used to attending. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the popular role-playing adventure game, had the potential to meet his criteria. He had been introduced to the game during the pandemic.
He called his friend Nathan Sheranian, vice president of people and culture for RateGain, and asked if he wanted to help him organize a networking event for Utah Tech Week. “But the catch is, would you host it at your house?” Sheranian remembers Bench saying. Bench interjects to emphasize the size of Sheranian’s basement, which would be great for hosting D&D.
Up until a few days before the event, Bench had planned to be the Dungeonmaster, or DM, but life was busy. He decided to call his friend, Jared Turner, CEO of Import Solutions, who had been playing D&D for five years, and asked him to take over Building on the semi-modern, post-apocalyptic, AI-arcana world Bench had created, Turner got to work.
Meanwhile, Brad Moss, founder and CEO of Product Labs, was launching his new company, Enhanced Ai, and decided to attend as many Utah Tech Week events as he could.
“There were a lot of formal meetings,” Moss says, “but then, I saw there was a D&D night.” Curious about the people who might attend — and drawn to the game aspect of D&D, given his decade-long experience in the video game industry — he decided to go. “I had no idea what to expect or the type of people that were going to be there.”
The first session
The inaugural night was a hit. As the group got to know each other, it became clear that the players were all intelligent, high-performing, and interesting individuals, with many of them being particularly interested in AI.
“We had inside jokes by the end of the night that we were crying over,” Bench says. “It was amazing how much we bonded. As a professional, it’s hard to justify play because there’s so much to do. I didn’t know we could develop such rich experiences by playing games together.”
Although it was meant to be a one-time campaign, the group decided to get together routinely. Now, it’s been almost two years of regular D&D sessions, and the results have been valuable.
“There’s something really cool about the dynamic of being around the table helping each other solve interesting problems,” Sheranian says, who had never played D&D before. “You can build relationships in a more accelerated way when you’re working on an interesting problem.”
All four of the friends agree it’s impactful because it created a collaborative environment that mirrors the teamwork required in a startup.
“Being able to do something like this where you can deploy maximum creativity in a low-stress environment is such an increase in the quality of your life, quality of interactions, because you’re playing,” Bench says.
AI in gameplay
AI was involved in the game from the beginning, although Moss was initially the only one who knew. He saw the merit in recording the first D&D session to see if it could recap the session and turn it into a story.
“I pulled out my phone and just pressed the record button,” Moss says. When the players saw how it summarized everything and even kept track of their new inside jokes, they were all in.
To make the session come alive, the players started using AI to generate images of the characters they play and the scenarios they encounter, throwing the depictions into their WhatsApp group chat to make it come alive.
During year two, Sheranian started a blog to keep track of their campaign, as a sort of reference so people could still play if they hadn’t been to a session in a while. He grabs quick audio recaps from each DM after their session ends, then uses AI to compile them into a quick summary for the blog, including any pictures generated along the way.
By the time he arrives at a session, Turner has invested anywhere from three to six hours of prep work into the night, planning out the story, possible contingencies and characters. He says it can be stressful to come up with things on the fly when players make choices that completely change the gameplay, so he’s started using AI to help him come up with dozens of characters, their stats and their backstories, so he can spend more brainpower on the actual story.
Matthew Thompson, who created an AI DM companion app called WorldSmith, became involved during the second year. The app has been an enormous asset to the group.
“AI has upped the game in our Dungeons and Dragons campaign all around,” Bench says. “We’re all so tech-forward, we just have fun.”
Business connections
Traditionally, golf has been the game of choice for conducting business deals. But for this group, real business is happening over D&D, whether it’s through connections made at the table or through opportunities and introductions made in their WhatsApp group.
Bench invited one of his clients to D&D, who owns a drone company. Turner, who helps companies manufacture and import products overseas, says that because of current trade negotiations, it’s difficult to get things like drone parts from China. “I was able to help him (Bench’s client) out with bringing in a lot of stuff that he probably wouldn’t be able to get otherwise,” he says.
A connection that emerged from the group helped Sheranian’s son. He asked Thompson, the founder of WorldSmith, if he’d be open to having his son intern for him.
“Two days later, he calls me back,” Sheranian says. “He put [my son] on projects in finance, in marketing, in software development, the whole thing … Matthew loved his work, and he’s invited him to come back next summer.”
Bench and Moss have become close because of the group, and Bench has brought him into his circle of lawyers, going on several business trips together.
“If I can bring a practitioner into a legal conference and he can talk about the tech side, it gives me a lot of credibility,” Bench says. “It gives him some good exposure, and it builds our relationship together.”
More than just a game
Across the board, relationships seem to be the most important thing that has grown from their D&D adventures. Because of the adventures they share around the table, the players have formed lifelong friendships.
“You’re going through an adventure and a story together,” Moss says, “and even though it’s all just kind of fun and silly, there’s meaning to it.”
Turner says when he looks back at his life two years ago, he was very lonely.
“This became a bit of a social lifeline to me,” Turner says. “I know that if we all moved apart and we saw each other 20 years from now … they’d still be my buddies that I could turn to and count on.”
Sheranian agrees, saying that while he grew up in Utah, he only recently moved back, so his Utah network is still emerging.
“It’s hard to make friends as an adult,” Sheranian says. “This has been a great avenue to make professional connections, yes, but personal connections that are all the better.”
Now, at conferences and other business events, they have a core group of people they know they can rely on.
“These are my closest friends that I can call when I’ve got something going on, either personal or professional,” Bench says. “That’s the relationship we’ve built going on these adventures together.”
With a new campaign launching during Utah Tech Week in February 2026, the group hopes to attract more players. Whether you’re new to the game or a seasoned pro, you’re welcome. Find more information here.