Agentic AI Execution

Leena Agarwal

The podcast for TPMs, product managers, and builders shipping real AI systems. No hype, no frameworks — just honest conversations about what it actually takes to move from model to production. Topics include agentic AI, AI program execution, stakeholder alignment, technical roadmaps, and building trust in AI-driven orgs. Hosted by Leena Agarwal, 18-year TPM veteran from Amazon and Meta. New episodes every week. Built for tech leaders who ship.

  1. 18 hr ago

    Real AI vs. AI Wrappers: How VCs Spot Fake Agentic Startups (Ep. 24)

    She's evaluated hundreds of AI pitch decks — and she can spot a real agentic AI company from a wrapper in two sentences. In Episode 24, I sit down with Sonia, Managing Partner at Zentara Ventures and founder of Dekode Health, to unpack what actually separates AI companies with real ROI from the ones wrapping a chatbot around a spreadsheet and calling it a platform.Sonia isn't theorizing from the sidelines. She's an engineer by training who moved through product and marketing before landing on the venture side — and she's personally built and launched her own AI healthcare product, now in private pilot. Four exits, one IPO, and more than half a billion dollars raised as a C-level executive — she's built a due-diligence lens most investors don't have. ⏱️ Chapters:0:00 Intro 0:32 Sonia's Path: Engineer to Product to Marketing to VC 2:37 What "AI-Powered" Really Buys You in a Pitch5:09 Real AI vs. Wrapper: The VC Due Diligence Test 6:12 Why She Went Deep Before Going Wide 8:23 The 91% Problem: Marketers Faking Agentic Work10:45 The Two-Sentence Test for Fake Agentic A I13:06 Legal Exposure: Where Founders Overstate AI14:04 What Should Never Get Handed to an Agent 15:36 Agentic AI in Marketing: Why Humans Still Win 17:34 The Line Healthcare AI Should Never Cross 19:42 The ROI Paradox: 84% Positive vs. "It's All Hype" 22:10 AI Layoffs: Real Capability or Convenient Cover? 25:35 The Solopreneur Era (and Why You Still Need Humans) 27:04 Redefining Execution in 2026 29:42 What Changes by 2027 32:15 Where to Find Sonia + Dekode Health "Founders who treat AI as a marketing layer instead of an infrastructure layer — wrapping a ChatGPT or Claude API around a spreadsheet and calling it a platform — that's not a company. It's a feature at best." — Sonia 🔗 Links:* Connect with Sonia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soniahunt/ * Connect with Leena: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leenaagarwal/ Subscribe for new episodes of Agentic AI Execution, where we go past the pitch deck to how AI actually gets built, funded, and used. #AgenticAI #AgenticAIExecution #VentureCapital #AIStartups #HealthcareAI

  2. 4 days ago

    Agentic AI is Changing Marketing, Ads & Customer Acquisition | Episode 23

    Are you throwing money into a black hole with paid ads? Deepti, founder of Uplaud and former product lead for Meta's monetization engine, explains why the future of growth isn't more ad spend—it's customer trust.In this episode of Agentic AI Execution with Leena Agarwal, we dive into why customer referrals convert 5x better than paid media, how agentic AI is transforming the way businesses acquire users, and why the tech stack of the future relies on authentic voices, not just algorithms. ⏱️ Chapters: 0:00 - Intro: Customer Trust is the New Gold 1:13 - Deepti's Journey: From Meta to Startup Founder 4:50 - The Problem with Modern Ad Platforms 8:15 - Why 5-6% is Still a "Good" Conversion Rate 11:30 - How Uplaud Amplifies Authentic Customer Voices 16:45 - Uplaud's AI Stack: Claude, OpenAI, and Gemini 18:20 - Career Advice for PMs & Engineers in the AI Era 🔗 Links: Check out Uplaud: https://www.uplaud.ai/Connect with Deepthi:   / deepthirao05  Connect with Leena:   / leenaagarwal

  3. 5 days ago

    Good Judgment Beats Good Context | Episode 22

    Aadil has spent 16 years as a TPM across Apple, Google, Nike, and Humane — and he's convinced the biggest risk in the AI era isn't using these tools too little. It's reaching for them before asking whether you even need to. 🕒 Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro & The Airtable Epiphany 00:53 - Why Good Judgment Beats Good Prompts 03:15 - Catching Dilemmas Early & Avoiding Agent Maintenance Overhead 05:10 - What to Delegate vs. What to Keep Control On 08:30 - TPMs Are Synthesizers, Not Producers 11:00 - How TPMs Stand Out in the AI Era 15:30 - What Hiring Managers Look For in Senior TPMs 19:00 - Startup Thinking vs. Big Tech Process Bloat 23:15 - Driving Velocity with Repeatable Systems 25:40 - Feedback Loops & Leadership Lessons from Apple 27:36 - When AI Agents Fail & Avoiding "Judgment Debt" 30:15 - Final Career Advice: Never Stop Learning 32:50 - Key Takeaways & Wrap-Up 🔗 Resources & Links:* * Aadil writes a newsletter on TPM leadership — https://artoftpm.substack.com/ * Connect with Aadil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aadilmaan/ * Connect with Leena: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leenaagarwal/

  4. 10 Aug

    Builders vs. Marketers with AI | Episode 21

    As Preethy highlights in the podcast, technical founders frequently fall into the trap of thinking "if I build a great product, it will sell itself". But as engineering and AI code generation become commoditized, building is no longer the bottleneck—customer validation and distribution are. Timestamps / Chapters 00:00 - Introduction: Why Advanced AI Isn't Everything 00:19 - Preeti’s Journey: 25 Years in Silicon Valley 00:45 - Evaluating AI Claims: Privacy, Hallucinations, & Security 01:15 - Questions Founders Must Answer Before Shipping AI01:30 - Agentic AI Capabilities & B2B vs. B2C Dynamics 02:00 - 2026: Moving from AI Adoption to Enterprise Production 02:30 - Solve Unsolvable Problems: Guardrails & Build vs. Buy 03:00 - Blitzscaling Speed vs. Cost & Safety Trade-offs 03:30 - 10x Growth Strategies & Agentic AI in Marketing 04:00 - What Technical Founders Get Wrong About Marketing 04:30 - Human Connection & The 3S Formula for Success

  5. 5 Aug

    The Perception Gap: Why Great Work Gets Overlooked | Episode 20

    Are you doing the best work of your career, yet someone else keeps getting the credit? In this episode of Agentic AI Execution, host Leena sits down with Uma, a leadership coach and the author of Sought After Leader. After spending more than two decades at Microsoft, Uma realized a hard truth: simply being great at your job and executing flawlessly is no longer enough to get you noticed—especially as AI takes over the execution layer. Tune in to learn how to make your value undeniable and ensure your name is spoken in the rooms where decisions are made. 🕒 Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction: Why great work isn't enough 00:52 - Uma's journey from Microsoft to writing Sought After Leader 04:22 - The SOAR Framework explained 07:54 - The H.U.M.A.N. Edge: 5 skills to stand out in the AI era 13:05 - Real-world case study: Closing the perception gap 20:48 - Strategic visibility vs. bragging 23:42 - Finding "Level 10" opportunities in the white space 31:40 - Final thoughts and where to find Uma 33:57 - Episode recap and takeaways 🔗 Resources & Links:* Read the Book: https://www.amazon.com/Sought-After-Leader-Great-Enough-Above-ebook/dp/B0H7L5W4VM/* Connect with Uma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uma-subramanian-limitless/* Connect with Leena:

  6. 4 Aug

    Will AI Take Your TPM Job? | LinkedIn Senior Staff TPM Ankur Gupta| Ep 19

    Could your program survive two weeks without you? If the answer is no, you’re not running an operation—you’re a single point of failure with a job title.In this episode of Agentic AI Execution, host Leena sits down with Ankur Gupta, Senior Staff TPM leading AI Infrastructure at LinkedIn (and former tech leader at Walmart). They tackle the burning question: Will AI replace technical program managers?Ankur breaks down why AI isn't taking your job, why status reporting was never the core value of a TPM, and how to build a "TPM Operating System" that runs seamlessly with AI agents while keeping human judgment at the center.---📌 KEY TAKEAWAYS & HIGHLIGHTS:• The Two-Week Test: How to structure programs that don't depend on your memory.• Status vs. Judgment: Give agents the status updates, but keep judgment to yourself.• Information Centralization & Work Decentralization: Scaling execution across 200+ teams.• The TPM Operating System: Operational, Collaboration, and Technical lenses.• Guardrails Over Memos: How to build real AI governance directly into technical systems.• Deterministic vs. Non-Deterministic Reliability: Managing AI agents that take different paths to a goal.---⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - The Two-Week Test: Are You a Single Point of Failure?01:03 - Ankur Gupta's Career Journey to LinkedIn AI Infrastructure02:20 - What Agentic AI Execution Means in Practice03:30 - The Evolving Role of a TPM in the AI Era06:05 - Information Centralization vs. Work Decentralization08:45 - Moving from Coordination to Strategic Tech Leadership11:20 - The "TPM Operating System" Framework17:12 - Live Walkthrough: Set Once, Run Forever Checklist22:50 - What Should NEVER Be Handed Off to an AI Agent?25:10 - Lowering the "Cost of Yes" & Influencing Humans28:30 - Who Holds Accountability When AI Agents Ship Code?30:50 - AI Governance & System Guardrails34:10 - Reliability in Non-Deterministic AI Systems37:40 - What TPMs Need to Do in the Next 12 Months to Stay Relevant42:15 - Practical Hands-On AI Hacks for Daily Workflows46:10 - Overcoming AI Anxiety & Final Advice49:18 - Key Takeaways & Episode Wrap Up🔗 Connect on LinkedIn: Ankur : https://www.linkedin.com/in/agupta03/Leena: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leenaagarwal/

  7. 30 Jul

    Build Structure - Don't Chase Tools | Ep. 18

    In this episode, I sit down with Michael—a technical product management leader who has spent the last ten years building TPM teams from scratch. Together, we explore what agentic architecture looks like inside an engineering org and the mentorship that separates teams winning with AI from those who are just experimenting. Michael shares his mental models for AI adoption, explaining why we need to move past the "experimentation phase" and focus on building durable systems. Whether you are a product manager, TPM, or engineer, this conversation provides practical advice on shifting your perspective from using AI as a tool to leading AI as a teammate. ——————————————————————⏱ CHAPTERS——————————————————————00:00 - Introduction to Agentic AI Execution 00:31 - Michael's Journey & Building a TPM Team 06:07 - Why 95% of AI Agents Fail to Reach Production 15:51 - How Engineering Teams Can Close the AI Adoption Gap 12:54 - Leading AI as a Teammate, Not a Tool 23:19 - Outro & TPM Breakdowns Substack Links & ResourcesMichael's substack: https://michigoetz.substack.com/aboutConnect with Us! Michael: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michi-goetz Leena:https://www.linkedin.com/in/leenaagarwal

  8. 28 Jul

    Is Agentic AI FOMO Real? How to Lead When Half Your Team is AI Agents | Ep. 17

    In Episode #17 of the Agentic AI Execution Podcast, host Leena sits down with Myra Deshmukh—a 10-year Amazon veteran and founder of Leadership Lab—to break down what leadership actually looks like when half your team consists of AI agents. If you've been feeling "Agentic AI FOMO" or overwhelmed by how fast tech is moving, this episode is a must-watch. Myra shares her golden rule for AI, how to avoid outsourcing critical thinking, and why human judgment is your greatest asset in an automated world ---------------------------------------------------⏱️ TIMESTAMPS---------------------------------------------------00:00 - Intro: Leading when half your team is AI agents 00:32 - Welcome Myra Deshmukh (Leadership Lab & Ex-Amazon) 01:15 - Dealing with uncertainty & Agentic AI FOMO03:40 - Delegate work, keep judgment: Avoiding over-validation09:30 - How leadership style is changing in top tech companies 14:10 - Simple ways to build authentic relationships & trust at work 21:15 - The Manager's Insurance Policy: Verifying agent output29:50 - What to do if you feel overwhelmed or behind with AI 38:10 - Final advice for leaders & wrapping up ---------------------------------------------------🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS---------------------------------------------------• Check out Leadership Lab: https://www.leadership-lab.co/• Connect with Myra Deshmukh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/myra-deshmukh/• Leena | Agentic AI Execution Podcast https://www.linkedin.com/in/leenaagarwal/ #AgenticAI #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #ProductManagement #LeadershipLab #TechLeadership

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About

The podcast for TPMs, product managers, and builders shipping real AI systems. No hype, no frameworks — just honest conversations about what it actually takes to move from model to production. Topics include agentic AI, AI program execution, stakeholder alignment, technical roadmaps, and building trust in AI-driven orgs. Hosted by Leena Agarwal, 18-year TPM veteran from Amazon and Meta. New episodes every week. Built for tech leaders who ship.

Information

  • Creator
    Leena Agarwal
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Leena Agarwal
  • Show Website
    Agentic AI Execution