High Agency: The Podcast for AI Builders

Raza Habib
High Agency: The Podcast for AI Builders

High Agency is the podcast for AI builders. If you’re trying to understand how to successfully build AI products with Large Language Models and Generative AI then this podcast is made for you. Each week we interview leaders at companies building on the frontier who have already succeeded with AI in production. We share their stories, lessons and playbooks so you can build more quickly and with confidence. AI is moving incredibly fast and no-one is truly an expert yet, High Agency is for people who are learning by doing and will share knowledge through the community. Where to find us: https://hubs.ly/Q02z2HR40

  1. 5 DAYS AGO

    Google Is Dead: How This 144-GPU Startup Is Building Einstein-Level AI Search I Will Bryk | Exa CEO

    Will Bryk, CEO of Exa, sits down with Raza Habib to reveal why traditional search engines are becoming obsolete and how his startup is building an AI-powered search engine for the future. From constructing a massive GPU cluster to predicting AI will surpass human mathematicians by 2026, Will shares fascinating insights about the technological breakthroughs that will reshape society in the coming months. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 05:13 - Exa as a Tool for LLMs and Neural Search  06:19 - Introducing "Websets" and Its Use Cases  10:16 - Building a Compute Cluster: Why Own vs. Rent?  12:00 - The Bitter Lesson and Scalability in AI  17:11 - Interesting Use Cases for Exa  19:44 - People Search and CRM Opportunities   21:10 - Predictions for AI Progress and Test-Time Compute  27:10 - Implications of AI on Creative Tasks and Society  29:15 - Automation, Jobs, and the Knowledge Economy  33:57 - What Could Stop AI Progress?  36:22 - Advice for AI Builders and Entrepreneurs ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Humanloop is the LLM evals platform for enterprises. We give you the tools that top teams use to ship and scale AI with confidence. To find out more go to humanloop.com

    39 min

  2. JAN 22

    $100M raised: How Decagon is building better AI agents I Jesse Zhang

    In this episode, Jesse Zhang joins Raza to discuss building cutting-edge AI agents for customer support. They explore how his early passion for LLMs led to creating a company that’s transforming the way businesses like Rippling, Duolingo, and Webflow interact with customers. Jesse breaks down the challenges of scaling AI systems, the importance of customer feedback, and his predictions for the future of AI. Chapters:00:00 - Introduction and Jesse Zhang's Background  01:17 - First Exposure to LLMs and Building Early Projects  04:32 - Decagon’s Rapid Growth and Differentiation in AI  06:37 - Understanding Decagon’s AI Customer Support Product  10:21 - Challenges in Building High-Performance AI Systems  13:14 - Evolution from Simple RAG to Agent Architectures  16:54 - Measuring Accuracy with Evals and Customer Feedback  19:05 - Balancing Customization and Reusability Across Clients  22:35 - Handling Customer Data and Incremental Deployment  25:21 - Restructuring Support Teams for AI Integration  27:03 - Team Composition and the Role of Domain Expertise  29:19 - Advice for New AI Builders: Customer-Driven Development  32:21 - Key Insights on AI Agents and Enterprise Adoption  36:34 - Predictions for AI Advancements in 2025  39:41 - Is AI Overhyped or Underhyped?  41:07 - Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Humanloop is the LLM evals platform for enterprises. We give you the tools that top teams use to ship and scale AI with confidence. To find out more go to humanloop.com

    42 min

  3. JAN 7

    How GitHub Copilot Became the First LLM-Powered Developer Tool with Ryan Salva

    On this week's episode, former GitHub Copilot lead Ryan Salva breaks down how AI coding tools became ubiquitous almost overnight. They discuss the critical differences between what novice and expert developers expect from AI, why starting with predictive text was both a blessing and a curse, and how the rapid adoption of AI assistance is reshaping the future of software development. Chapters:00:00 - Introduction 01:09 - The Creation of GitHub Copilot  05:39 - From Prototype to Product: Challenges in Scaling  07:37 - How GitHub Copilot Works Behind the Scenes  11:18 - Metrics That Matter: Evaluating AI Success  14:43 - Building Momentum: What It Feels Like to Launch a Hit  17:51 - The Evolution of AI Tools for Developers  21:13 - Evaluations and Testing in AI Development  26:00 - The Role of Automation and the Future of Coding  30:53 - Will Engineers Still Write Code in the Future?  33:16 - Advice for Aspiring AI Builders  36:51 - Is AI Overhyped or Underhyped?  38:17 - Closing Reflections  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Humanloop is the LLM evals platform for enterprises. We give you the tools that top teams use to ship and scale AI with confidence. To find out more go to humanloop.com

    39 min

  4. 12/27/2024

    What Gives an AI Founder Staying Power I James Theuerkauf, CEO of Syrup Tech I Sara Ittelson, Partner at Accel

    In this week's episode, Raza speaks with James Theuerkauf, CEO of Syrup Tech, and Sara Ittelson, Partner at Accel, to explore the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs in this transformative era. They discuss building AI-first companies and the lessons learned from scaling in a rapidly evolving space. With practical tips on leveraging data, creating competitive advantages, and sustaining passion for the long haul, this episode offers invaluable guidance for founders in AI. Chapters:00:00 - Introduction and Guest Backgrounds  01:27 - Syrup Tech’s Approach to AI in Retail  03:29 - The Role of AI in Demand Forecasting  08:49 - Building Effective AI Systems and Teams  15:30 - How Generative AI is Shaping Businesses  19:18 - Advice for Founders in the AI Era  28:15 - Building an AI-First Company 33:26 - Innovations and Trends in AI  38:47 - Is AI Overhyped or Underhyped?  42:46 - Closing Thoughts and Reflections --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Humanloop is the LLM evals platform for enterprises. We give you the tools that top teams use to ship and scale AI with confidence. To find out more go to humanloop.com

    44 min

  5. 12/18/2024

    How to build great AI products with Vanta Software Developer Noam Rubin

    In this episode, Noam Rubin, a Software Developer at Vanta reveals how his team uses data-driven strategies to design, test, and improve cutting-edge AI features. Learn how customer insights, rapid prototyping, and iterative development transform raw ideas into tools that make compliance and security easier for businesses everywhere. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction02:47 - The process of building AI products at Vanta04:51 - The role of customer feedback in product development06:59 - Integrating AI into security and compliance workflows08:06 - Using data specifications to guide product development10:10 - Collaborating with subject matter experts to refine AI models12:14 - Iterative testing and refining AI features14:10 - Quality control and ensuring AI accuracy16:00 - The importance of dogfooding and internal feedback loops18:23 - Scaling AI features and rolling them out to wider audiences20:50 - Educating engineers and democratizing AI at Vanta22:20 - Key lessons learned from building AI products24:12 - Maintaining AI quality through continuous feedback26:00 - The future of AI in business and product development

    41 min

  6. 12/11/2024

    Predictions for AI in 2025 I Ex-OpenAI, Ex-Stripe researcher Stanislav Polu

    In this episode of High Agency, former OpenAI researcher Stan Polu shares his journey from AI research to founding Dust, an enterprise AI platform. Stan offers a contrarian view on the future of AI, suggesting we may be hitting a plateau in model capabilities since GPT-4. He discusses why startups should focus on product-market fit before investing in GPUs, shares practical lessons for building AI products, and predicts increased competition between AI labs and API developers.  Chapters:00:00 - Introducing Dust: an enterprise AI platform06:07 - From Stripe to OpenAI: Stan's journey10:29 - Why research wasn't enough: building Dust15:10 -  Best practices for building an AI product20:50 - Is prompt engineering here to stay23:40 - Understanding language models and their limitations32:56 - Predictions for AI in 202539:53 - Measuring progress toward AGI42:26 - The true value of AI technology --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Humanloop is the LLM evals platform for enterprises. We give you the tools that top teams use to ship and scale AI with confidence. To find out more go to humanloop.com

    44 min

  7. 11/13/2024

    How Replicate is Democratizing AI with Open-Source Resources

    In this episode, we explore how Replicate is breaking down barriers in AI development through its open-source platform. CEO Ben Firshman shares how Replicate enables developers without machine learning expertise to run AI models in the cloud. 00:00 Introduction 00:29 Overview of Replicate 03:13 Replicate's user base 05:45 Enterprise use cases and lowering the AI barrier 07:45 The complexity of traditional AI deployment 10:24 Simplifying AI with Replicate's API 13:50 ControlNets and the challenges of image models 19:42 Fragmentation in AI models: images vs. language 25:05 Customization and multi-model pipelines in production 26:33 Learning by doing: skills for AI engineers 28:44 Applying AI in governments 31:12 Iterative development and co-evolution of AI specs 33:13 Final reflections on AI hype 35:18 Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Humanloop is an Integrated Development Environment for Large Language Models. It enables product teams to develop LLM-based applications that are reliable and scalable. To find out more go to humanloop.com

    36 min

  8. 11/07/2024

    The Principles for Building Excellent AI Features with Superhuman’s Lorilyn McCue

    How do you build AI tools that actually meet users’ needs? In this episode of High Agency, Raza speaks with Lorilyn McCue, the driving force behind Superhuman’s AI-powered features. Lorilyn lays out the principles that guide her team’s work, from continuous learning to prioritizing user feedback. Learn how Superhuman’s "learning-first" approach allows them to fine-tune features like Ask AI and AI-driven summaries, creating practical solutions for today’s professionals.  00:00 - Introduction04:20 - Overview of the Superhuman06:50 - Instant Reply and Ask AI10:00 - Building On-Demand vs. Always-On AI Features13:45 - Prompt Engineering for Effective Summarization22:35 - The Importance of Seamless AI Integration in User Workflows25:10 - Developing Advanced Email Search with Contextual Reasoning29:45 - Leveraging User Feedback32:15 - Balancing Customization and Scalability in AI-Generated Emails36:05 - Approach to Prioritization39:30 - Real-World Use Cases: The Versatility of Current AI Capabilities43:15 - Learning and Staying Updated in the Rapidly Evolving AI Field46:00 - Is AI Overhyped or Underhyped?49:20 - Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Humanloop is an Integrated Development Environment for Large Language Models. It enables product teams to develop LLM-based applications that are reliable and scalable. To find out more go to humanloop.com

    43 min
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About

High Agency is the podcast for AI builders. If you’re trying to understand how to successfully build AI products with Large Language Models and Generative AI then this podcast is made for you. Each week we interview leaders at companies building on the frontier who have already succeeded with AI in production. We share their stories, lessons and playbooks so you can build more quickly and with confidence. AI is moving incredibly fast and no-one is truly an expert yet, High Agency is for people who are learning by doing and will share knowledge through the community. Where to find us: https://hubs.ly/Q02z2HR40

Information

  • Creator
    Raza Habib
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    28
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Raza Habib

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