Episode 33: Agentic Loops

The episode delves into the concept of forward deployed engineering (FDE) and its significance, highlighting the challenges faced by established companies in adopting AI. It also explores the shift from SaaS to utilities and the impact on SaaS companies. The tool of the week, 'Loops,' is discussed in detail, emphasizing its power in automating recurring tasks and enabling self-improvement. The conversation delves into advanced prompts and loops, the concept of goals and verifiable end states, financial optimization in AI spend, the shift to agent-based workloads, the future of AI models and providers, quality assurance and AI tools, token usage and model optimization, misconceptions about AI training, government work and AI training, and upcoming episode announcements. Takeaways The premise of forward deployed engineering and its role in integrating and ushering people into AI usage The shift from SaaS to utilities and the impact on SaaS companies, as well as the value of platforms AI models and providers are evolving rapidly, impacting market dynamics and competition. Balancing token optimization with model quality is a critical challenge in AI implementation. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Forward Deployed Engineering 08:00 Challenges for Established Companies 28:26 Exploring the Tool of the Week: Loops 38:22 Advanced Prompts and Loops 44:13 Financial Optimization and AI Spend 51:30 Future of AI Models and Providers 01:00:29 Token Usage and Model Optimization 01:06:48 Government Work and AI Training