# Is AI paying off for companies?

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/q/is-ai-paying-off/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

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Question

Of the 10 moments we cut that answer this, 7 say it’s paying off and 3 say it pays off in places. Jad Naous said on a16z Podcast (Oct 16, 2026) that AI can deliver production work much faster, turning a six-month data-lake feature into a ten-day project. Alex Danilowicz said on Lightcone (Oct 22, 2026) that some AI design workflows save hours when teams provide company context upfront.

## Where they stand

- It’s paying off 7
  - Pierre Stock
  - Arvind Krishna
  - Jad Naous
  - Jason Ma
  - Dylan Patel
  - Jeanne Grosser
  - Thomas Laffont
- Pays off in places 3
  - Alex Danilowicz
  - Uday Kiran Medisetty
  - Nilay Patel

## It’s paying off 7

1. The MAD Podcast · Oct 22, 2026 · 2 min
   **[Mistral says its models speed senior researchers up two to four times](https://realalpha.app/s/mistral-says-its-models-speed-senior-researchers-up-two-to/)**
   > “it accelerates our most senior researcher by a factor two, three or four with our models.”
   [Pierre Stock](https://realalpha.app/builders/pierre-stock/) VP of Science, Mistral AI [1:14:53](https://realalpha.app/v/nxAoCPsGfe8/?t=4493)
2. All-In · Oct 21, 2026 · 3 min
   **[AI-written code can outperform when agents run evals](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-written-code-can-outperform-when-agents-run-evals/)**
   > “We use agents and coding agents now for probably half the code that is written inside our place, and it is superior to what was written before.”
   [Arvind Krishna](https://realalpha.app/builders/arvind-krishna/) Chairman & CEO, IBM [20:08](https://realalpha.app/v/yzk44lz-RGI/?t=1208)
3. a16z Podcast · Oct 16, 2026 · 7 min
   **[AI cut a complex data-lake project from six months to ten days](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-cut-a-complex-data-lake-project-from-six-months-to-ten/)**
   > “And that took maybe about 10 days. In previous days, that would have taken maybe about six months for a single person.”
   [Jad Naous](https://realalpha.app/builders/jad-naous/) CEO, Grepr [24:04](https://realalpha.app/v/blkIGLlZePg/?t=1444)
4. Latent Space · Oct 13, 2026 · 4 min
   **[Multi-site rollouts, not pilots, prove a robot creates value](https://realalpha.app/s/multi-site-rollouts-not-pilots-prove-a-robot-creates-value/)**
   > “What's really hard is that the customers believe or validate that your robot creates enough value that they want to deploy your robots across many of their sites.”
   [Jason Ma](https://realalpha.app/builders/jason-ma/) Co-founder & Chief Scientist, Dyna Robotics [39:37](https://realalpha.app/v/BHiYomkfoGQ/?t=2377)
5. Big Technology Podcast · Oct 9, 2026 · 5 min
   **[AI revenue may justify infrastructure spending sooner than expected](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-revenue-may-justify-infrastructure-spending-sooner-than/)**
   > “And if you look at like Amazon, for example, the biggest builder of AI infrastructure, all of their AI infrastructure investments are profitable today.”
   [Dylan Patel](https://realalpha.app/people/dylan-patel/) Founder & CEO, SemiAnalysis [12:26](https://realalpha.app/v/LwMtHI7BHWI/?t=746)
6. Grit · Oct 5, 2026 · 3 min
   **[Vercel runs support, BDR and RevOps with agents](https://realalpha.app/s/vercel-runs-support-bdr-and-revops-with-agents/)**
   > “the remaining support team that we have really is now finding legitimate problems in the product and then working really closely with the engineering”
   [Jeanne Grosser](https://realalpha.app/builders/jeanne-grosser/) COO, Vercel [58:16](https://realalpha.app/v/CPp_XKM7fcc/?t=3496)
7. BG2 · Jun 20, 2025 · 4 min
   **[Headcount is flat while revenue grows at Mag7 and AppLovin](https://realalpha.app/s/headcount-is-flat-while-revenue-grows-at-mag7-and-applovin/)**
   > “Right-sizes the workforce. At the same time as AI comes in, now the company's lean and mean, innovates, outcompetes companies like Google and Meta”
   [Thomas Laffont](https://realalpha.app/people/thomas-laffont/) Coatue [49:14](https://realalpha.app/v/4JA7n0wTChw/?t=2954)

## Pays off in places 3

1. Lightcone · Oct 22, 2026 · 3 min
   **[Bring company context into AI design before prompting](https://realalpha.app/s/bring-company-context-into-ai-design-before-prompting/)**
   > “spend the 10 minutes to bring in your existing context. It'll save you hours in the long run.”
   [Alex Danilowicz](https://realalpha.app/builders/alex-danilowicz/) CEO, Magic Patterns [15:14](https://realalpha.app/v/2tZT2-pS_pI/?t=914)
2. The Pragmatic Engineer · Oct 14, 2026 · 8 min
   **[Uber is shifting from diff counts to feature velocity](https://realalpha.app/s/uber-is-shifting-from-diff-counts-to-feature-velocity/)**
   > “we are internally talking about not necessarily just diff velocity but feature velocity”
   [Uday Kiran Medisetty](https://realalpha.app/people/uday-kiran-medisetty/) Distinguished Engineer, Uber [1:24:06](https://realalpha.app/v/MDUYSMJmi8A/?t=5046)
3. Decoder · Oct 8, 2026 · 5 min
   **[Enterprise users tolerate brittle agents; consumers walk away](https://realalpha.app/s/enterprise-users-tolerate-brittle-agents-consumers-walk-away/)**
   > “What I know about consumers is that the first time it doesn't work, they just walk away. They have no incentive to try again to overcome frustration or brokenness.”
   [Nilay Patel](https://realalpha.app/people/nilay-patel/) Editor-in-chief, The Verge [19:49](https://realalpha.app/v/HRbteJut-sA/?t=1189)

Each moment is a few minutes of a long interview, cut by Real Alpha and filed under how it answers by a model that read its claim and quote. Open a moment for its full transcript. Last moment added Oct 23, 2026.