Wade Foster’s Post

🇫🇷 Last night in Paris: product leaders gathered to talk about the reality of building AI-native products. Our CEO, Gaétan Rougevin-Baville, shared the stage with teams from PlayPlay and Doctolib for "IA: le grand virage de la fonction Produit", an evening focused on real product decisions in the age of AI. Gaétan's take: pivoting to AI as your core business isn't just a tech decision. It's an organizational one. He walked through how we made that shift at CarCutter why vertical AI products beat generalist tools, and how distribution is becoming the differentiator as AI tech becomes table stakes. Thanks to Le Ticket 🎟, Pendo.io, and Join Maestro for organizing. Great conversations all around 🙌

AI is moving fast, but product fundamentals haven’t changed. In this episode of Between Product and Partnerships, we sit down with Stephanie J. Neill, Head of Product at Stripe, to unpack what’s actually shifting in product development right now, and what still holds true. From the pressure to “just use AI” to the reality of messy data and non-negotiable human oversight, this conversation gets into how teams are really working with these tools today. Tune in for a grounded take on where AI fits into product work, and where it doesn’t. 👀 🎙️ Listen here: https://lnkd.in/eXqHKjZq

A great conversation on the podcast with Stephanie J. Neill, Head of Product at Stripe, about how teams can cut through the AI hype. She reminds us to start by asking what problem we’re actually trying to solve and only then consider how AI can make a meaningful impact. Worth a listen if you’re thinking about AI in your product work. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e6qSDjzj

We're counting down the days until this new session announced for our upcoming Future of Service event - "Beyond the Hype: Building an AI-First Service Ecosystem". This session is designed for customers who know AI is important, but aren't sure how to make it work at scale without things breaking. Featuring two leaders who are already making AI real inside complex, fast-moving organisations: We've got Bryce Maybury, CTO at Guzman y Gomez Mexican Kitchen, talking about what it actually takes to keep service consistent when you're growing fast across four countries. And Richard Exton, CIO at Aware Super, on how to adopt AI responsibly in financial services — where the stakes for getting it wrong are real. Come hear them in conversation with Zendesk's Kellie Hackney at Future of Service on April 22 in Sydney. Register here: https://zdsk.co/4qKZsOT #FutureOfService #Zendesk #AI

Lately, a lot of conversations have been about AI and agentification: how it’s changing work how it’s making us faster ... And more autonomous. By definition, if we become more autonomous, we should need each other less. Turns out that it's not really what I’m seeing. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been hosting small conversations with former Airbnb teammates through Airlumni and I keep hearing the same thing: 👉 “I want to collaborate”. Not just reconnect, actually build things together. We might have it backwards. If everyone becomes more autonomous, then what becomes rare - and valuable - isn’t independence. It’s chosen interdependence. I wrote a bit more about this + shared excerpts from a recent conversation with the incredible Fiona Keane. I’ll drop it in the comments 👇

Products have a ceiling. Platforms have a flywheel. Platform thinking shifts your business model from creating value internally to enabling value across an ecosystem. Applying platform thinking to an AI-driven business: - Identify two sides of your market that need connecting - Build AI that improves with every transaction - Create network effects where each user adds value for others - Design for ecosystem growth, not just product features You do not need to be Uber or Airbnb. A local services business can become a platform by connecting customers, providers, and data in new ways. The strategic question changes from "How do we sell more?" to "How do we enable more?" That is platform thinking. Is your AI strategy building a product or an ecosystem? Free lesson: https://lnkd.in/eFsArEmk #SmallBusinessAI #BusinessGrowth #AIFundamentals #AIForBusiness #SmallBusinessAI #BusinessGrowth #AIFundamentals #AIForBusiness https://lnkd.in/eFsArEmk

Some teams are still figuring out AI. Others are already putting it to work. The Optimizely Roadshow is where that shift happens. We’re bringing together digital and marketing leaders to talk less about hype and more about how AI, experimentation, and content orchestration actually work in practice. Next stops: Copenhagen — April 15 New York City — April 16 Barcelona — April 22 Minneapolis — May 14 Stockholm — May 28 Real conversations. Practical ideas. A clearer path forward. Join us at a city near you: https://lnkd.in/e-tgWbgw

When we talk about high-productivity engineering, we really practice what we preach. So excited for Erin Doyle's new blog that takes a lens on the journey we took to use AI to improve our own engineering outcomes. (Spoiler: it wasn't a linear journey!)

The GTM Leader Society community continues to push the envelope of what is possible with AI in GTM. Wednesday night will be another incredible discussion. If you are in Silicon Valley, and building GTM, and not already part of the group, you are missing out on incredible insights from incredible people driving incredible outcomes. Look forward to seeing old friends tomorrow: Anjai "AJ" Gandhi Jared Barol

Most real estate firms say they're "doing AI." Very few are actually capturing value from it. In our latest episode of #RealEstateMeetsAI, I sat down with Alex Wolkomir, Partner at McKinsey & Company, to unpack why. Alex has spent years advising the world's largest real estate firms on AI and digital strategy — and he didn't hold back. Here's what stood out: → The numbers on AI's potential in real estate? They've only gotten bigger since McKinsey's landmark report. → Some firms are breaking out of pilot purgatory. Most aren't. → The gap between leaders and laggards is widening fast — and the differentiator isn't technology. It's strategy. If you want a clear-eyed, no-hype look at where AI in real estate is actually heading, this one's for you. 🎧 Spotify: https://hubs.ly/Q047ZtqS0 And if you want to go deeper — join Alex this Wednesday for a live webinar on how agentic AI is reshaping real estate's operating model: https://hubs.ly/Q047ZC4C0 #RealEstateMeetsAI #AIinRealEstate #PropTech #CRETech #BuiltEnvironment #DigitalTransformation #Innovation #FutureOfRealEstate #CommercialRealEstate #EnterpriseAI #ArtificialIntelligence #TechLeadership