The days of making easy money from coding are over, says former Stripe UK CTO turned founder Emma Burrows

If you work in tech, you’re likely in one of two camps: thinking about using AI agents, or already deploying tens of them.That’s why Emma Burrows cofounded Portia AI, a platform which helps businesses build and use AI agents securely, in-house — and which secured £4.4m in a seed round led by General Catalyst back in April.Emma's no stranger to a breakneck sector: before founding Portia, she was UK chief technology officer at payments giant Stripe, and previously built out the ecommerce stack at Charlotte Tilbury.In this week’s episode of the Sifted podcast, Emma joins editor Amy Lewin to talk about what AI agents can and cannot do, the very real risks they pose to junior engineering jobs — and why she doesn’t feel ‘mum guilt’.Key moments:0.00: Intro and about Portia AI3.00: How companies are using AI agents9.00: Impact of AI agents on junior engineers15.07: What AI Emma uses to code16.00: Transition from Stripe to founding a company19.15: Being a female founder in AI22.40: On 996 and hustle culture24.30: Emma's angel investing25.40: General Catalyst relationship27.30: The AI Act33.00: Quick fire questions and outro