

Chain of Thought
Conor Bronsdon
Host Conor Bronsdon explores artificial intelligence through conversations with the founders, engineers, and researchers building breakthrough AI systems. Each episode examines AI infrastructure, machine learning strategy, and emerging technologies, translating technical depth into insights for both builders and decision-makers.
Whether you're developing AI applications, leading engineering teams, or making strategic business bets on the future of technology, Chain of Thought helps you identify the patterns that matter. New episodes monthly.
Whether you're developing AI applications, leading engineering teams, or making strategic business bets on the future of technology, Chain of Thought helps you identify the patterns that matter. New episodes monthly.
Episodes
Mentioned books

9 snips
Nov 19, 2025 • 1h 18min
The Critical Infrastructure Behind the AI Boom | Cisco’s Jeetu Patel
Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco, shares insights on the critical infrastructure needed for AI's rapid growth. He discusses three major constraints: infrastructure limits, trust issues from non-deterministic models, and a data gap. Jeetu highlights Cisco's approach to building secure AI factories and their collaborations with major partners like NVIDIA. He also emphasizes why enterprises may soon utilize thousands of specialized models and the importance of high-trust teams. Join him for a deep dive into the future of AI infrastructure!

Nov 12, 2025 • 53min
Beyond Transformers: Maxime Labonne on Post-Training, Edge AI, and the Liquid Foundation Model Breakthrough
Maxime Labonne, Head of Post-Training at Liquid AI and creator of a popular LLM course, dives into the future of AI architectures. He reveals how Liquid AI’s hybrid model merges transformers with convolutional layers for efficiency on edge devices. Maxime discusses the pivotal role of post-training in maximizing AI capabilities and the use of synthetic data. He shares insights on small on-device models, creative applications, and the challenges of function calling—making complex AI evolution both relatable and accessible.

15 snips
Oct 8, 2025 • 53min
Architecting AI Agents: The Shift from Models to Systems | Aishwarya Srinivasan, Fireworks AI Head of AI Developer Relations
Aishwarya Srinivasan, Head of AI Developer Relations at Fireworks AI, dives into the intricate world of building robust AI agents. She advocates for a shift from model-centric thinking to viewing AI as a complete software system. Aish discusses the evolution from prompt to context engineering, emphasizing high-quality data and responsible AI. She also explores the pros and cons of open-source models, the importance of evaluation-driven development, and strategies for managing agent autonomy. Her insights provide a roadmap for navigating the future of AI.

8 snips
Oct 1, 2025 • 21min
The accidental algorithm: Melisa Russak, AI research scientist at WRITER
Melisa Russak, an AI research scientist at Writer, shares her journey from a math teacher in China to an innovator in machine learning. She recounts accidentally rediscovering core algorithms, emphasizing how fresh perspectives can lead to breakthroughs. Melisa dives into creating a handwritten character classifier and talks about using synthetic data due to data constraints. Her insights on training AI for self-knowledge and the importance of human-centered evaluation reveal the future of enterprise AI.

33 snips
Sep 24, 2025 • 55min
If Code Generation is Solved What's Next? | Graphite’s Greg Foster
Greg Foster, Co-founder and CTO of Graphite, shares insights on the evolving role of AI in software development. He highlights how code reviews are now the bottleneck as AI automates code generation. Greg introduces three waves of AI technologies transforming coding processes and discusses the importance of context and senior engineers in this new landscape. He explains 'stacking'—breaking down changes for better review efficiency—and emphasizes the hiring gap for experienced engineers who can effectively leverage AI tools. A captivating dive into the future of coding!

Sep 10, 2025 • 54min
Vercel's Playbook for AI Agents: From Vibe Check to Production | Malte Ubl
What’s the first step to building an enterprise-grade AI tool? Malte Ubl, CTO of Vercel, joins us this week to share Vercel’s playbook for agents, explaining how agents are a new type of software for solving flexible tasks. He shares how Vercel's developer-first ecosystem, including tools like the AI SDK and AI Gateway, is designed to help teams move from a quick proof-of-concept to a trusted, production-ready application.Malte explores the practicalities of production AI, from the importance of eval-driven development to debugging chaotic agents with robust tracing. He offers a critical lesson on security, explaining why prompt injection requires a totally different solution - tool constraint - than traditional threats like SQL injection. This episode is a deep dive into the infrastructure and mindset, from sandboxes to specialized SLMs, required to build the next generation of AI tools.Follow the hostsFollow AtinFollow ConorFollow VikramFollow YashFollow Today's Guest(s)Connect with Malte on LinkedInFollow Malte on X (formerly Twitter)Learn more about VercelCheck out GalileoTry GalileoAgent Leaderboard

14 snips
Aug 27, 2025 • 52min
From Demo to Defensibility: How to Build an AI Business that Lasts | Aurimas Griciūnas
Aurimas Griciūnas, CEO of SwirlAI and AI bootcamp founder, discusses building sustainable AI businesses. He emphasizes that success now relies on speed, financial backing, and exceptional talent, rather than just trendy tools. Aurimas warns about the pitfalls of neglecting fundamental engineering in a crowded market. He also shares insights on the future of AI, foreshadowing a slowdown in LLM advancements and the rise of self-improving systems, making a case for the significance of robust data engineering and automated feedback loops.

8 snips
Aug 20, 2025 • 42min
Mindset Over Metrics: How to Approach AI Engineering | Hamel Husain
Hamel Husain, an independent AI consultant with a rich history at Airbnb and GitHub, dives into the mindset shift required for successful AI engineering. He critiques the reliance on vanity metrics, arguing they lead to misconceptions about AI performance. Instead, he champions custom evaluations and error analysis as the backbone of robust AI products. The discussion also highlights the importance of domain expertise in refining AI metrics and encourages an experimentation mindset to foster continuous improvement and reliability in AI systems.

Aug 13, 2025 • 43min
How AI Velocity is Rewriting the Rules for Engineering Leaders | ChatPRD's Claire Vo
What if your next competitor is not a startup, but a solo builder on a side project shipping features faster than your entire team? For Claire Vo, that's not a hypothetical. As the founder of ChatPRD, formerly the Chief Product and Technology Officer at LaunchDarkly, and host of the How I AI podcast, she has a unique vantage point on the driving forces behind a new blueprint for success.She argues that AI accountability must be driven from the top by an "AI czar" and reveals how a culture of experimentation is the key to overcoming organizational hesitancy. Drawing from her experience as a solo founder, she warns that for incumbents, the cost of moving slowly is the biggest threat and details how AI can finally be used to tackle legacy codebases. The conversation closes with bold predictions on the rise of the "super IC" - who can achieve top-tier impact and salary without managing a team - and the death of product management. Follow the hostsFollow AtinFollow ConorFollow VikramFollow YashFollow Today's Guest(s)Connect with Claire on LinkedInFollow Claire on X/TwitterClaire’s podcast How I AICheck out GalileoTry GalileoAgent Leaderboard

Aug 6, 2025 • 24min
Building an AI-Native Startup | GrowthX's Marcel Santilli
How do you build an AI-native company to a $7M run rate in just six months?According to Marcel Santilli, Founder and CEO of GrowthX, the secret isn't chasing the next frontier model, it's mastering the "messy middle." Drawing on his deep experience at Scale AI and Deepgram, Marcel joins host Conor Bronsdon to share his framework for building durable, customer-obsessed businesses.Marcel argues that the most critical skills for the AI era aren't technical but philosophical: first-principles thinking and the art of delegation.Tune in to learn why GrowthX first focused on services to codify expert work, how AI can augment human talent instead of replacing it, and why speed and brand are a startup's greatest competitive advantages. This conversation offers a clear playbook for building a resilient company by prioritizing culture and relentless shipping.Follow the hostsFollow AtinFollow ConorFollow VikramFollow YashFollow Today's Guest(s)Connect with Marcel on LinkedInFollow Marcel on X (formerly Twitter)Learn more about GrowthXCheck out GalileoTry GalileoAgent Leaderboard


