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AI Agents: Mirage Or Real Revolution? — With Dmitry Shevelenko

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AI Agents: Mirage Or Real Revolution? — With Dmitry Shevelenko

Big Technology Podcast

1 DAYS AGO
Big Technology Podcast

Big Technology Podcast

1 DAYS AGO
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Dimitri Shevelenko is the chief business officer of Perplexity. Shevelenko joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss whether the AI industry’s shift toward agentic 'super apps' and computer-using assistants will become a real business. Tune in to hear why Pe...

Highlights

In this episode, Dimitri Shevelenko, Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer, unpacks how AI is evolving from passive search tools into proactive digital agents that perform real work—reshaping productivity, enterprise adoption, and business models.
05:53
Perplexity’s ARR grew from under $250M to over $500M this year
15:51
AI can replace hiring multiple employees and enable individuals to operate as executives
25:19
Final Pass workflow catches document errors, but humans must set objectives, validate outputs, and apply good taste
34:13
Perplexity made a model-agnostic decision because models will specialize, and a computer can use different models for different parts of a task
46:08
The gap between the best and second-best models is not significant.
52:19
Perplexity uses post-trained Chinese open-source models in U.S. data centers to avoid potential political biases
1:01:48
Being agentic means making quick decisions and having humility in an ever-changing world

Chapters

What happens when AI stops answering questions—and starts doing your job?
00:00
Why isn’t everyone using AI yet? (Hint: it’s not the tech)
12:38
How do you trust an AI with your taxes—or your company’s next product?
22:08
Why picking the right model for each task beats betting on one 'best' AI
34:13
Can open-source models—especially from China—reshape the AI power balance?
46:08
What if your AI strategy isn’t about predicting the future—but staying ready for any version of it?
52:19
Is true AI leadership about being right—or about acting, learning, and adapting faster?
1:01:48

Transcript

Alex Kantrowitz: Is the near uniform move of AI companies to agent super apps going to pay off? Let's ask Perplexity's Chief Business Officer right after this. This week, I'm live at Knowledge 2026, ServiceNow's annual conference in Las Vegas, where enterp...