Bret Taylor predicts that over the next year, AI will produce scientific breakthroughs—like proving mathematical conjectures—that are undeniable to the public. This will change the conversation from AI as a chatbot to AI as a fundamental tool for human progress in science and medicine.
The hype around individuals building their own apps with AI misses the bigger picture. According to Sierra CEO Bret Taylor, the fundamental shift is from graphical interfaces to conversational agents, which will change software form factors, business models, and user interaction entirely.
Bret Taylor predicts that personal AI agents like ChatGPT will become the primary way people interact with the internet, much like Google replaced Yahoo portals. This shifts interaction from clicking links to delegating tasks, fundamentally changing the economics of discovery, SEO, and advertising.
Bret Taylor warns that companies waiting for AI to be perfect before adopting it will fail. The winning strategy is to identify business processes where the consequences of an error are manageable and today's AI is already superior to the human baseline, like password resets or order tracking.
Bret Taylor explains the perception that AI progress has stalled. While improvements for casual tasks like trip planning are marginal, the reasoning capabilities of newer models have dramatically improved for complex work like software development or proving mathematical theorems.
A key argument for getting large companies to trust AI agents with critical tasks is that human-led processes are already error-prone. Bret Taylor argues that AI agents, while not perfect, are often more reliable and consistent than the fallible human operations they replace.
OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor argues that the biggest hurdle for established software companies isn't adopting AI technology, but disrupting their own business models. Moving from per-seat licenses to the outcome-based pricing that agents enable is a more profound and difficult challenge.
Bret Taylor recalls that Sheryl Sandberg's greatest gift as a mentor was her willingness to give direct, harsh feedback. He realized that this candor, while difficult, is a true sign that someone cares about your career growth, as it's easier to say what someone wants to hear.
To make its AI agents robust enough for production, Sierra runs thousands of simulated conversations before every release. These "AI testing AI" scenarios model everything from angry customers to background noise and different languages, allowing flaws to be found internally before customers experience them.
Bret Taylor, who has consistently been at the center of major tech shifts, credits his timing to more than just luck. He actively fights his own biases by finding someone he trusts who disagrees with him on a new technology and asking them to convince him he's wrong.