Is AI Revenue Inflated? | The Dejima Mafia

Babak Hodjat has been building AI agents since 1998. He said that in front of a room in San Francisco last week, sitting next to his brother Siamak for the first time in 25 years. His argument is narrower than the bubble talk, and more useful. Enterprises are not buying AI because a need has been identified. They are buying because the business side expects productivity in return. The engineering that would actually deliver that productivity has not been done yet. Until it is, the revenue is running ahead of the value. He also thinks most of the layoffs attributed to AI were cuts companies could already afford. Babak co-founded Dejima in 1998. The patent behind it, "Adaptive interaction using an adaptive agent-oriented software architecture," carries a June 15 1998 priority date and became foundational to Apple's Siri. Sybase acquired the company in 2004. He went on to co-found Sentient Technologies, applying evolutionary algorithms to trading, and now leads AI at Cognizant. Siamak Hodjat was at Dejima from the start and stayed in the assistant world through Siri, Viv Labs and Gameplanner alongside Adam Cheyer. Recorded live in San Francisco on July 25, 2026, in front of a room of founders and researchers. Our Partner : www.humanagency.com News letter : https://secondnewsletter.substack.com Babak Hodjat : https://www.linkedin.com/in/babakhodjat/ Siamak Hodjat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siamak-hodjat-98669/ Caroline Hoogland: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-hoogland-a092b25a/ Ardalan Javadi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ardalanjam1369/ Farzam Hejazi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farzam-hejazi-5b608081/ About Us : Linkedin : / secondpodcast Twitter : /thesecondpod Instagram : / thesecondpod #Secondpod #Second_Pod #پادکست ـ دوم #secondpod #پادکست