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Host, 20VC
3 quotes from 3 episodes on 20VC with Harry Stebbings, each with a timestamped link to the source.
Harry Stebbings reports that AI agents now act as primary software buyers while offering a clumsy experience for consumer services. Vercel reached a $600 million run rate with half of new business originating from autonomous software.
Labs including OpenAI might voluntarily slow down development until mandatory external safety limits exist.
“He says no lab including OpenAI solved alignment enough to keep scaling at full speed. He asked for mandatory externally enforced safety bars for continued scaling and expects labs, OpenAI included, to voluntarily slow down until those exist.”
From Why Static Guardrails Fail Against Autonomous AI Agents
Vercel reached $600 million in recurring revenue with AI agents initiating 50% of new business. This volume represents a jump from 3% at the beginning of the year.
“Vercel at 600 million in ARR with agents being 50% of the new business up from 3% at the start of the year.”
From Vercel Hit $600M ARR Because Software Buyers Are Now AI Agents
Harry Stebbings argues that consumers do not want agentic interfaces for services like taxi hailing. Booking transportation through chat applications feels clumsy compared to using native mobile applications.
“Agentic disruption is bizarre in taxi hailing. You're going to go to your WhatsApp and say, 'I would like to get I don't see it. I agree. I don't think it's a worse user experience.'”
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