The MongoDB Podcast

Watch this episode as a video on Spotify!In this episode of the MongoDB Podcast, host Jesse Hall sits down with Karthik Kalyanamaran, Co-Founder and CTO of Langtrace AI, to discuss how engineering teams are building reliable AI products. Moving from traditional, deterministic software engineering to the non-deterministic world of Large Language Models requires an entirely new approach to debugging, testing, and monitoring.Karthik shares his journey from scaling observability infrastructure at Coinbase to creating Langtrace AI, an open-source LLM application observability platform built on OpenTelemetry standards. We dive deep into what a modern AIOps stack looks like and how developers can eliminate the guesswork of LLM hallucinations, prompt adjustments, and vector database performance.Key topics discussed in this episode:The Shift to Non-Deterministic Software: Why traditional unit tests fail when building with LLMs, and how to adapt your development and production lifecycle.The Core Elements of AIOps: A breakdown of modern AI deployment, including runtime tracing, prompt engineering, and context optimization.Optimizing Vector Databases: How Langtrace integrates with MongoDB Atlas Vector Search to track aggregate pipelines, embedding queries, and semantic retrieval accuracy.Anonymization and Security: Navigating SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and tracing system performance without exposing sensitive customer data.The HTML Era of AI: Why starting with primitive, native constructs directly on top of models often yields better design insights than over-relying on complex frameworks.Introducing Hey Zest: A sneak peek into Langtrace closed beta agent platform that allows developers to deploy B2B AI bots natively inside Slack.Timestamps:00:06 Welcome to MongoDB Podcast Live with host Jesse Hall and Karthik Kalyanamaran00:55 Karthik background: From building infrastructure at Coinbase to launching Langtrace AI02:05 What is Langtrace? Solving the non-deterministic nature of LLMs04:17 The Origin Story: Realizing AI needs robust observability while building a crypto chatbot07:38 Transitioning from reactive traditional web2 monitoring to proactive AI Ops10:54 Defining the modern AI Engineer and the art of Context Engineering12:20 Security at scale: Navigating SOC 2 Type 2 compliance across data vendors like MongoDB14:57 Live Demo: Setting up OpenTelemetry tracing on top of a MongoDB Atlas Vector Search script16:44 Tracking latency, token count metrics, and indexing properties at runtime18:22 Implementing automated evaluations using LLM as a Judge22:05 Future Outlook: Mitigating long context window degradation and advanced tool calling23:05 Developer Advice: Why you should build closer to the bare metal model constructs24:52 Closing remarks, GitHub open source contributions

Ishan Mukherjee, Co-founder and CEO of ROX (building large-scale autonomous revenue agents; ex-Amazon Robotics), discusses building AI agents that run entire revenue cycles. He explains ROX's three-layer architecture and why they migrated from DynamoDB to MongoDB. Conversations focus on context as critical infrastructure, agent vs SaaS distinctions, and practical advice for scaling AI systems.

Watch this episode as a video on Spotify!In this episode, Luis Pazmino, Industry Principal for Financial Services at MongoDB, sits down with Saurabh Khandelwal from Capgemini to explore how financial institutions can transform payments data into a strategic revenue engine.The conversation dives into GenPAL, Capgemini’s solution powered by MongoDB’s modern data platform, and how it enables organizations to move beyond data storage toward real-time intelligence, AI-driven insights, and data monetisation.In this episode, we discuss:• Evolving Payments Landscape: Key shifts shaping data strategies and opportunities in payments• Modern Data Foundations: Building scalable, real-time architectures to support high-volume transactions and compliance needs• From Data to Value: Turning payments data into actionable insights and new revenue streams• AI at Scale: Leveraging gen AI and agentic AI for fraud detection, customer intelligence, and operational efficiency• Pragmatic Modernization: How to adopt AI and modern data platforms without a “big bang” approachWhether you’re a fintech innovator or a financial institution navigating legacy systems, this episode offers practical insights on unlocking the full value of payments data with AI and modern data platforms.Timestamps00:09 – Introduction01:05 – Introducing GenPAL02:38 – The tactical shift: From standard BI to Agent AI04:56 – Identifying strains06:59 – Solving payment failures08:48 – Sub-millisecond latency12:48 – The "Experience Gap"15:01 – Strategic advice18:14 – High-level architecture21:35 – Real-world success24:09 – Future outlook

Watch this episode in video format on Spotify!If you're building Python applications on MongoDB and still writing raw queries by hand, you're leaving a lot of developer productivity on the table. Beanie, the async-first ODM built on Pydantic, was created to fix exactly that — and this episode goes deep on how and why it works.You'll learn how Beanie maps Python objects to MongoDB documents without sacrificing atomicity or performance, why async-first design matters for modern Python stacks, how schema migrations actually work in a document database, and what the deprecation of Motor means for your existing codebase. The episode also covers Beanie's integration with FastAPI, how it handles indexes and aggregation pipelines under the hood, and what's coming in the next phase of the library.Ramon, the creator of Beanie and a senior software engineer at Microsoft, built this library five years ago to fill a gap nobody else had addressed. He's joined by Shubham, MongoDB's product manager for Python client libraries, for a live demo and Q&A.Follow The MongoDB Podcast so you never miss an episode.-[00:00] Introduction & Guest Welcome[01:00] What Is Beanie? The ODM Explained[04:10] ODM vs ORM — What's the Difference?[05:20] Why Ramon Built Beanie (The Origin Story)[06:30] Core Design Principles: Atomicity & Async-First[08:00] FastAPI + MongoDB: The Rising Python Stack[11:00] Bonnet: The Synchronous Beanie Backport[12:55] Live Demo: Defining Document Schemas with Pydantic[16:00] Nested Documents, Links & Polymorphic Collections[18:45] Best Practices for Schema Design[20:30] Index Management in Beanie[22:40] Complex Queries: Beanie vs Raw PyMongo[24:30] Aggregation Pipelines in Beanie[28:05] Schema Migrations: Forward, Backward & Freefall[31:30] Motor Is Deprecated — What That Means for You[34:00] Beanie v2: What Changed and What Didn't[36:20] FastAPI, Flask & Django Integration[37:45] What's Next for Beanie: Performance & Lambda Optimization[39:30] How to Contribute to Beanie[41:00] Resources, Community & Audience Q&A

Are you still relying on OCR for your enterprise AI? You're losing critical context.In this episode, Anaiya Raisinghani (Sr. Tech. Evangelist, AI Startups & Ventures at MongoDB) sits down with Adityavardhan Agrawal, Co-Founder and CEO of Morphik. They dive deep into how Morphik is helping developers and enterprises understand complex, unstructured data and automate high-leverage workflows.Adi breaks down the limitations of standard RAG pipelines and reveals why they turned to Vision Language Models (VLMs) to process complex documents like architectural floorplans.What you’ll learn in this episode:The OCR Trap: Why text extraction is inherently lossy for complex documents and how VLMs generate better embeddings.The RAG Misconception: Why getting high-quality context requires much more than just plain vector search.Database Architecture: Why Morphik hit the limits of Postgres/JSONB for dynamic datasets and how migrating to MongoDB Atlas simplified their multi-tenancy and querying.Massive ROI: How one manufacturing customer used Morphik to slash their quote generation time from 7 days to under 2 minutes.The Future of Knowledge: Building self-healing, self-updating data layers that leverage MQL.(Want to start building? You can use Morphik's API, Python/TypeScript SDKs, or grab the Docker image from GitHub today!)⏱️ Chapter Timestamps00:00 - Intro: Meet Adi and Morphik01:18 - APIs, SDKs, and Getting Started with Morphik02:28 - The Lightbulb Moment: Why Standard AI Fails on Unstructured Data04:44 - The Biggest Misconception About RAG06:24 - Vision Language Models (VLMs) vs. Traditional OCR08:35 - Reducing Entropy: Combining Embeddings with Knowledge Graphs10:13 - Architecture Deep-Dive: Hitting the Limits of Postgres & JSONB12:06 - Why Morphik Migrated to MongoDB Atlas13:24 - Simplifying Multi-Tenancy at Scale15:13 - Ensuring Data Security and Reliability16:33 - Accelerating Growth with MongoDB for Startups18:10 - Real-World Impact: Cutting Quote Generation from 7 Days to 2 Minutes20:15 - The Future: Self-Healing Data Layers and Native MQL

Read more about Capgemini's Digital Cloud Platform → https://cloud.mongodb.com/ecosystem/c...In this episode of the MongoDB Podcast, Apoorva is joined by Vinay Makkaji from Capgemini and Farid Mohammad from MongoDB to discuss how enterprises are powering the next wave of Agentic AI applications. The conversation explores the shift from AI experimentation to real-world deployment, including AI agents, RAG architectures, and large-scale data modernization.They also unpack how the MongoDB–Capgemini partnership enables organizations to build scalable, production-ready AI solutions through unified data management and modern architectures. Tune in to hear practical use cases, industry examples, and where enterprise AI is headed next.Sign-up for a free cluster → https://www.mongodb.com/cloud/atlas/r...Subscribe to MongoDB YouTube→ https://mdb.link/subscribe00:00:00 Introduction to the MongoDB Podcast 00:00:58 Meet the Experts: Vinay Makaji & Fared Muhammad 00:03:09 The Three Phases of genAI Evolution 00:04:47 Shifting from Generative to Agentic AI 00:06:55 Why AI is a System, Not Just a Model 00:10:48 The Power of Technology Partnerships 00:17:11 Case Study: Predictive Maintenance in Oil & Gas 00:20:18 How Agentic Systems Prevent $250k/Hour Downtime 00:24:22 The Future: Mainframe Modernization & Industrial IoT 00:28:28 Key Takeaway: Partnerships Build Outcomes 00:30:22 Final Advice: Data Strategy is the Foundation

Are you trying to figure out if your team should build an AI model from scratch or integrate an off-the-shelf solution? You aren’t alone.In this episode of the MongoDB Podcast, Shane McAlister sits down with Akshaya Murthy, Director of AI Transformation at Zendesk, to decode the maze of building enterprise AI products. They dive into why integrating is often the winning move for speed-to-market, the hidden costs of custom models, and why bad data will break even the most perfect transformer model.What you’ll learn in this episode:The Build vs. Buy Calculus: Why lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and rapid deployment favor integration for most enterprises.Spotting "AI Washing": How to avoid vendor buzzword salads and focus on actual problem-solving and ROI.Architectural Must-Haves: Why your AI stack needs modular API layers, model hot-swapping, and CI/CD pipelines just like your standard code.The "Garbage In, Hype Out" Rule: Why a solid data strategy and a centralized single source of truth are non-negotiable.Ready to stop experimenting and start delivering real AI value? Tune in now.

In this episode, Michael Lynn (MongoDB) and Yang Li (Google Cloud) break down the architectural blueprint for building intelligent, production-grade applications. Move beyond simple RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and explore the world of AI Agents.What you’ll learn:The Google Cloud AI stack: Vertex AI, Agent Space, and Model Garden.Deep-dive integration: Connecting MongoDB Atlas with BigQuery and Dataflow.Real-world Demo: Building a grocery store AI assistant using Gemini and Vector Search.Startup Perks: How to access up to $350k in Google Cloud credits and $10k in MongoDB credits.

Everyone's talking about AI taking over coding jobs, but what's the real story? Shane McAllister and DataCamp's Richie Cotton dive into the "vibe coding" phenomenon and expose the biggest misconceptions developers have about AI. Learn how to shift your mindset from a pure coder to a "vibe curator" and future-proof your career. Don't miss the full video discussion, available to watch now in the Spotify app.

In this live episode we’ll explore how Cisco harnesses the power of MongoDB Atlas Vector Search to enable cutting-edge AI capabilities across various projects. We’ll dive into its pivotal role in solutions like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and the Agentic Framework, demonstrating how it serves as the backbone for efficient and scalable data retrieval. Learn how MongoDB Atlas Vector Search empowers Cisco to bridge the gap between unstructured data and intelligent AI-driven insights, fueling innovation across various use cases.