TechnologyBusinessEntrepreneurship

AI + a16z

a16z

Artificial intelligence is changing everything from art to enterprise IT, and a16z is watching all of it with a close eye. This podcast features discussions with leading AI engineers, founders, and experts, as well as our general partners, about where the technology and industry are heading.

Play

Open in

103 episodes
Avg 44 min
English

Episodes 103

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

#42
May 2, 2025 · 53 min
MCP Co-Creator on the Next Wave of LLM Innovation
Anthropic's David Soria Parra — who created MCP (Model Context Protocol) along with Justin Spahr-Summers — sits down with a16z's Yoko Li to discuss the project's inception, exciting use cases for connecting LLMs to external sources, and what's coming next for the project.
#41
Apr 28, 2025 · 36 min
What Is an AI Agent?
Partners on the a16z Infra team discuss and debate one of the tech industry's buzziest words right now: AI agents. Guido Appenzeller, Matt Bornstein, and Yoko Li dive into everything from how to distinguish between agents, LLMs, and functions, to how to think about pricing agents.
#40
Mar 28, 2025 · 33 min
Benchmarking AI Agents on Full-Stack Coding
In this episode, a16z General Partner Martin Casado sits down with Sujay Jayakar, co-founder and Chief Scientist at Convex, to talk about his team’s latest work benchmarking AI agents on full-stack coding tasks.
#39
Mar 21, 2025 · 44 min
Automating Developer Email with MCP and Al Agents
a16z's Yoko Li and Resend's Zeno Rocha discuss how generative AI — powered by agents and, now, MCP — is reshaping the email experience for developers, as well as the overall world of programming.
#38
Mar 20, 2025 · 26 min
The Future of Digital Workers
In this episode of AI + a16z, a16z Partner Joe Schmidt sits down with 11x CTO Prabhav Jain for an inside look at how AI-powered digital workers are reshaping sales and revenue operations. They discuss the evolution of agentic AI, the trade-offs between orchestration and autonomy, and the technical innovations driving 11x’s products, Alice and Mike. Prabhav breaks down the challenges of real-time voice AI, the complexities of multimodal agent interactions, and why the future of enterprise AI is about delivering measurable customer outcomes—not just automation. They also dive into the fast-moving landscape of model providers, the impact of open-source AI, and how startups can stay ahead in an environment of constant technological change. Plus, they explore 11x’s bold decision to re-architect its platform from the ground up, the lessons learned from scaling AI-powered sales automation, and what it takes to build truly effective digital workers. Key Takeaways: The difference between true AI agents and complex orchestrations—and why it matters. How 11x built Alice and Mike to deliver human-like sales performance at scale. The cutting-edge advancements shaping AI voice assistants and real-time multimodal interactions. Lessons from rebuilding an AI platform while supporting a fast-growing customer base. How AI startups can balance rapid iteration with long-term strategic bets. For anyone interested in AI-powered automation, enterprise sales, or the future of digital work, this episode offers a front-row seat to the latest innovations pushing the boundaries of AI agents. Learn more: 11x Follow everybody on X: Prabhav Jain Joe Schmidt Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
#37
Mar 14, 2025 · 1 hr 41 min
Building the Next Generation of Conversational AI
In this episode of AI + a16z, Sesame Cofounder and CTO Ankit Kumar joins a16z general partner Anjney Midha for a deep dive into the research and engineering behind their voice technology. They discuss the technical challenges of real-time speech generation, the trade-offs in balancing personality with efficiency, and why the team is open-sourcing key components of their model. Ankit breaks down the complexities of multimodal AI, full-duplex conversation modeling, and the computational optimizations that enable low-latency interactions. They also explore the evolution of natural language as a user interface and its potential to redefine human-computer interaction. Plus, we take audience questions on everything from scaling laws in speech synthesis to the role of in-context learning in making AI voices more expressive. Key Takeaways: How Sesame AI achieves natural voice interactions through real-time speech generation. The impact of open-sourcing their speech model and what it means for AI research. The role of full-duplex modeling in improving AI responsiveness. How computational efficiency and system latency shape AI conversation quality. The growing role of natural language as a user interface in AI-driven experiences. For anyone interested in AI and voice technology, this episode offers an in-depth look at the latest advancements pushing the boundaries of human-computer interaction. Learn more: The Maya + Miles demo Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice Sesame CSM 1B model Follow everybody on X: Ankit Kumar Anjney Midha Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
#36
Mar 7, 2025 · 40 min
Agent Experience: Building an Open Web for the AI Era
Netlify CEO and Cofounder Matt Biilmann joins a16z General Partner Martin Casado to explore how AI is reshaping web development .
#35
Feb 28, 2025 · 52 min
What DeepSeek Means for Cybersecurity
A trio of security experts — Ian Webster of Promptfoo, Dylan Ayrey of Truffle Security, and Brian Long of Adaptive — discuss the security implications of the DeepSeek reasoning model that made waves recently.
#34
Feb 21, 2025 · 40 min
Agents, Lawyers, and LLMs
Aatish Nayak, head of product at Harvey, shares his experience building AI products for enterprises — including the legal profession — and how to address areas like UX, trust, and customer engagement.
#33
Feb 14, 2025 · 37 min
Reasoning Models Are Remaking Professional Services
Hebbia founder and CEO George Sivulka discusses the potential for reasoning models and AI agents to supercharge knowledge-worker productivity — and the global economy along with it.
#32
Feb 7, 2025 · 38 min
Data Management for Enterprise LLMs
Fivetran cofounder and CEO George Fraser discusses how LLMs fit into the data management picture within large enterprises — including what needs to change and what does not.
#31
Jan 10, 2025 · 38 min
From NLP to LLMs: The Quest for a Reliable Chatbot
a16z General Partner Martin Casado and Rasa cofounder and CEO Alan Nichol discuss the past, present, and future of AI agents and chatbots.
#30
Dec 27, 2024 · 46 min
Best of the Year: Building AI Companies
A 2024 highlight reel, featuring founders sharing their insights, advice, and experiences building AI companies — from foundation-model labs to vertical applications.
#29
Dec 18, 2024 · 44 min
Can AI Agents Finally Fix Customer Support?
Decagon CEO Jesse Zhang and a16z partner Kimberly Tan discuss how LLMs are reshaping customer support, the strong market demand for AI agents, and how AI agents give startups a a new pricing model to help disrupt incumbents.
#28
Nov 30, 2024 · 43 min
REPLAY: Scoping the Enterprise LLM Market
This is a replay of our first episode from April 12, featuring Databricks VP of AI Naveen Rao and a16z partner Matt Bornstein discussing enterprise LLM adoption, hardware platforms, and what it means for AI to be mainstream.
#27
Nov 15, 2024 · 41 min
Building Developers Tools, From Docker to Diffusion Models
Replicate cofounder and CEO Ben Firshman, and a16z partner Matt Bornstein, discuss the art of building products and companies that appeal to software developers. Ben was the creator of Docker Compose, and Replicate has a thriving community of developers hosting and fine-tuning their own models to power AI-based applications.
#26
Nov 4, 2024 · 38 min
The Best Way to Achieve AGI Is to Invent It
Longtime machine-learning researcher Pedro Domingos joins a16z General Partner Martin Casado to discuss the state of artificial intelligence, whether we're really on a path toward AGI, and the value of expressing unpopular opinions.
#25
Oct 25, 2024 · 40 min
Neural Nets and Nobel Prizes: AI's 40-Year Journey from the Lab to Ubiquity
a16z General Partner Anjney Midha shares his perspective on the recent collection of Nobel Prizes awarded to AI researchers in both Physics and Chemistry. He talks through how early work on neural networks in the 1980s spurred continuous advancement in the field — even through the "AI winter" — which resulted in today's extremely useful AI technologies.
#24
Oct 23, 2024 · 39 min
How GPU Access Helps AI Startups Be Agile
GPU access is like oxygen to AI startups: without it, they can't breathe. Here, a16z General Partner Anjney Midha explains the forces that lead to GPU shortages and price spikes, and how the firm mitigates these concerns for portfolio companies.
#23
Sep 27, 2024 · 1 hr 12 min
DisTrO and the Quest for Community-Trained AI Models
Bowen Peng and Jeffrey Quesnelle of Nous Research join a16z General Partner Anjney Midha to discuss their mission to keep open source AI research alive and activate the community of independent builders. The focus is on a recent project called DisTrO, which demonstrates it's possible to train AI models across the public internet much faster than previously thought possible.

Showing 61–80 of 103 episodes