Joel Christner, (@joelchristner, Founder/CEO at @viewyourdata) discusses the complexities of data management in AI, structured and unstructured data, the importance of RAG pipelines and vector databases.

SHOW SUMMARY: Aaron and Joel discusses the complexities of data management in AI, focusing on the concept of universal data representation. They explore the challenges organizations face with structured and unstructured data, the importance of RAG pipelines and vector databases, and the implications of data privacy in regulated industries. The conversation also touches on managing model versions and the emerging patterns in AI tooling that can help enterprises effectively utilize AI technologies.

SHOW: 925

SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #925 Transcript

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SHOW NOTES:

• View.io website

Topic 1 - Welcome to the show, Joel. Give everyone a quick introduction.

Topic 2 - Our topic today is everything data and how to represent it and embed it into AI systems. First, what is the challenge with data, structured or unstructured, in organizations today and what is behind the concept of Universal Data Representation

Topic 3 - Industry or customer specific data today is big challenge for organziations, especially in highly regulated industries such as healthcare, financial services, etc. The most prevalent solution I am seeing is taking an existing foundational model and then adding a RAG pipeline vs. the cost and time to fine tuning. What are you seeing?

Topic 4 - Even when companies have good data, that doesn’t mean that data makes it into the AI pipeline correctly, this is where the embedding problem and your concept of Universal Data Representation comes into play, correct?

Topic 5 - But, once you get the first model out, then what? How should the data and models be handled over time? How do you create a platform and a continuous feedback loop to improve the results over time?

Topic 6 - What are the most successful use cases you are seeing today with your customers?

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Where does the next phase of AI-assistants for software development go next? Is it an evolution of developer productivity, or a complete rethinking of the barriers and limitations for broader software development?

SHOW: 924

SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #924 Transcript

SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET

CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

SHOW SPONSORS:

• Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US Cloud

SHOW NOTES:

WHERE DO AI DEVELOPER-ASSISTANTS GO NEXT?

• A year ago it felt like co-pilots were one of the entry point use-cases for AI.
• Since then we’ve seen numbers say the uplift is 10-20% productivity.
• Microsoft claims that 20-30% of their code is now written by AIs.
• We’ve seen many senior developers speakout that it’s not replacement level technology and they don’t trust it.
• Companies like Cursor have a $9-10B valuation. Windsurf just got purchased for $3B by OpenAI.
• Microsoft has Co-Pilot (based on OpenAI models). Google and Amazon are rumored to be launching their own.
• Lots of companies are launching agents (IBM, Salesforce, Oracle, etc.), and lots of agent frameworks now exist.
• So where does it go next? Is it just wide-spead adoption of developer productivity?
  • Is it specialized functions within developer workflows? (e.g. CI/CD, documentation, security evaluations, bug fixes, long-term maintenance, etc.)
  • How far are we from teams being just a few architects, leads, Sr. Devs, and then teams of AI’s (agents, etc.)?
    • Is that a good thing for Sr. Dev personalities that didn’t want to focus on soft-skills?
    • Does that allow for greater experimentation against feature-requests or stories, since they can create more, test more, etc.?
    • Do we start to see companies create skunkworks teams/groups that try to adopt this approach?
    • Are product managers ready to have zero-backlogs and the demand for new ideas to increase?

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Siqi Chen, CEO & CFO @ Runway, talks about his journey from JPL developer to Founder, CEO/CFO of a financial planning and analysis (FP&A) startup. We focus on how to build products that customers crave and how a customer-centric view differs from traditional product management.

SHOW: 923

SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #923 Transcript

SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET

CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

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SPONSORS:

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SHOW NOTES:

• Runway website
• Behind What Seems Like an Overnight Success (video)

Topic 1 - Welcome to the show, Siqi. First, your combination of technical and business/financial background is fascinating. How did you go from coding at NASA to Head of Product at Zynga to CEO/CFO for a finance platform startup? Give everyone a quick introduction.

Topic 2 - One thing I’ve noticed as a trend in your background is the core concept of building. What has been your philosophy in building products? How do you build products that customers demand?

Topic 3 - Let’s talk about AI and AGI for a moment. We hear all the time how disruptive this will be. What are your thoughts here, and how do we develop both adaptability and resiliency to new technologies?

Topic 4 - Let’s talk FP&A (financial planning & analysis). Our core listeners out there tend to skew more towards the tech and infrastructure side, but a core theme of this show is always to be learning as much of the business as possible to apply those concepts. As someone with a background in both worlds, plus now running an FP&A startup, what do you wish folks on the technical side of the house knew more about to make their jobs easier?

Topic 5 - We posted a link in the show notes for a video you did on the “overnight success” of Runway. It was a good representation and origin story of how something can go viral with the right mindset and product-market fit. Tell everyone about that as Runway approaches 5 years now.

Topic 6 - What is your biggest challenge in the FP&A space today? Is it AI? We’ve seen a lot of AI disruption in coding, legal, and other areas requiring deep data pool insights. Is this any different?

Topic 7 - If anyone is interested, what do you have coming up? How can folks follow you, say hey, or check out what you’ve got going on at Runway?

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