Big Technology Podcast · Alex Kantrowitz

Is AI Killing Software? — With Bret Taylor

·1 hr 3 min·4 clips

Taylor says AI agents can be 'more reliable than most of the systems that they replace.'

1. Big Technology Podcast centers on AI changing software with Brett Taylor, the CEO of Sierra and OpenAI board chair. 2. Brett Taylor matters here because he led at Facebook, Salesforce, Google, Twitter, and OpenAI, and the host frames him as someone who has seen several platform shifts. 3. The episode asks whether vibe coding is real or whether the bigger change is that software itself will stop looking like today's CRM and dashboard products. 4. Taylor says the cost of software is mostly in maintenance, not building, and uses Dave Clark's LinkedIn post about building a custom CRM overnight as an example. 5. He argues that the real question is not whether someone can rebuild a CRUD app, but whether software will move from browser forms to AI agents. 6. Taylor says agents will operate against databases and can give different dashboards to a CEO, a head of sales, or a sales operations leader. 7. He says that if AI can generate personal insights from data, the value of colorful dashboards may decline. 8. Taylor compares today's AI moment to the birth of the web browser and the smartphone, saying incumbent advantages can start to look like disadvantages. 9. He says the market is trying to figure out which software companies can make the transition, and he cites Microsoft as a cloud-era winner. 10. He contrasts that with Siebel Systems, which was the number one CRM before Salesforce and did not make the transition. 11. Taylor says business-model transitions are harder than technology transitions, especially when companies move from on-premises software to subscription revenue and then to outcomes-based pricing. 12. He says public-company CEOs may have to accept a temporary revenue dip while shifting technology and business models at the same time. 13. Taylor says Salesforce has multiple assets, including Service Cloud, Slack, Tableau, and MuleSoft, and that its future depends on its 'agentic manifestation.' 14. He invokes Clayton Christensen's question, 'What job does your customer hire the software to do?' 15. Taylor says that for consumer internet use, ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar tools are already becoming the front door to the internet for many people. 16. He says a personal AI agent may replace 10 blue links for tasks like planning travel or booking hotels, while changing SEO, SEM, and other demand-generation mechanics. 17. Taylor says Sierra helps companies such as Cigna, Sirius XM, DirecTV, and Rocket Mortgage build AI agents that handle customer interactions. 18. He describes agents that can reset a Sirius XM connection, find a Deliveroo order, answer Cigna benefits questions, and help people move from Redfin to Rocket Mortgage. 19. Taylor's style is optimistic, analytical, and conversational, with repeated back-and-forth on dashboards, markets, and product design. 20. Listeners who follow AI software, enterprise SaaS, or the future of consumer internet will get the most from this discussion, while listeners wanting a narrow product demo may skip it.

As heard by us

A practical AI-software conversation that keeps dragging hype back to business consequences.

This episode treats "Is AI Killing Software?" as a real question, not a stunt title, and uses it to look at how AI is changing both how software gets built and how it is experienced.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a cool-headed read on how AI is changing software.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Big Technology Podcast