Code & Connor is where Connor Deeks and Dorian Smiley ask the questions most AI podcasts won't. Two founders — one strategist, one engineer — in honest conversations with executives, builders, and practitioners about what's actually happening at the intersection of AI and the enterprise. Learn from collaborations with customers and partners, see Codestrap's technology in action, and get perspective on the hottest issues within the AI industry. No hype. Just real, unvarnished discussion with the industry's smartest people.
CxC Ep43: The AI Industry Enters Choppy Waters - with Anand Pant
This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Anand Pant, Founding Partner and Builder at Codestrap, to discuss the growing financial risks facing the AI industry, the challenges of AI shopping agents and business automation, and what companies should consider when it comes to AI costs, reliability, and control over their technology. Also, a look at why companies are turning to cheaper AI models, how AI is changing the way businesses work, and whether the industry can afford to keep growing at this pace.
Be sure to follow this channel for insights and perspective from industry leaders, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com to learn more about our offering.
In this episode, we discuss:
→ Why Anthropic’s slowing revenue growth could affect its plan to go public
→ How smaller and open-source AI models are making AI cheaper
→ The growing competition over how AI agents make payments and online shop
→ How AI shopping agents could make expensive mistakes for shoppers and businesses
→ Why CoreWeave’s stock price causes concerns about the AI boom
→ The risks of private credit, rising interest rates, and borrowing money to build data centers
→ Why Amazon, Microsoft, and Google could benefit most from the AI boom
→ What AI sovereignty means for companies and control over their data and technology
→ How AI providers are creating vendor lock-in
→ Why companies may be choosing to run their own AI to save money
→ What to expect from the upcoming Future Ops conference in Dallas
→ Why connecting multiple AI agents can make business processes less reliable
→ The importance of measuring existing business processes before adding AI
→ Why needing human oversight could limit the financial benefits of AI
→ How enterprises could evaluate AI investments to determine the cost and risk
Codestrap
Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/
Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/
Anand: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anand-pant/
Codestrap (X): https://x.com/Codestrap_ai
CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap
Codestrap (Substack): https://codestrap1.substack.com/
Codestrap (Medium): https://medium.com/codestrap
Join FuturOps 2026: The Palantir User Conference!
Register Now: https://www.futurops.com/e/u/checkout/futurops/tickets/order
Date: October 26–27, 2026 (Kicks off Oct 26 @ 12:00 PM)
Location: Dallas, TX
8 Oct 2026
CxC Ep. 42 The Business of AI: The Fallout Continues with Bryce Leszczynski (Codestrap)
This week on Code x Connor, we’re joined by Bryce Leszczynski, Founding Partner and Business Platform Lead at Codestrap, to discuss whether the massive investment in AI infrastructure can actually create enough value to justify the cost, why today’s AI still falls short of the reliability needed for enterprise automation, and what happens when increasingly independent AI systems are given access to tools they cannot safely control.
Be sure to follow this channel for insights and perspective from industry leaders, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com to learn more about our offering.
In this episode, we discuss:
→ Whether AI can generate enough economic value to justify the massive data center buildout→ Why current AI reliability still falls short of what enterprise automation demands→ How companies should measure the real value and total cost of intelligence→ The debt financing and interest rate risks behind the AI infrastructure boom→ Meta’s questionable tax and accounting strategies to offset infrastructure costs→ How AI investments could create new tax opportunities for enterprises→ The security risks of increasingly autonomous AI agents→ The problem with giving probabilistic systems unbounded access to powerful tools→ Who should be held liable when an AI agent causes real-world damage→ Why nobody uses human approval for autonomous agent, even though it’s safer→ The gap between the automation enterprises want and what today’s AI can reliably deliver→ Why physical AI and robotics require much higher reliability standards
Codestrap
Dorian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-smiley-97a72a14/
Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/
Bryce: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryce-leszczynski-350a6a113/
Codestrap (X): https://x.com/Codestrap_ai
CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap
Codestrap (Substack): https://codestrap1.substack.com/
Codestrap (Medium): https://medium.com/codestrap
Join FuturOps 2026: The Palantir User Conference!
Register Now: https://www.futurops.com/e/u/checkout/futurops/tickets/order
Date: October 26–27, 2026 (Kicks off Oct 26 @ 12:00 PM)
Location: Dallas, TX
23 Sept 2026
CxC Ep41: Is “AI Doom” Genuine Fear or Good Marketing? - with Benjamin Rogojan & Phil Sparks
This week on Code x Connor, Codestrap Founding Partners Benjamin Rogojan and Phil Sparks join Connor to discuss the latest wave of AI doomsday warnings, what recent incidents involving rogue AI agents say about the industry’s approach to safety, and whether companies should rethink the rush to adopt every new AI technology.
Be sure to follow this channel for insights and perspective from industry leaders, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com to learn more about our offering.
In this episode, we discuss:
→ Whether AI extinction-risk warnings are genuine alarm, hype, or strategic marketing
→ How AI actually could destroy us: model alignment failures and bioweapons
→ The gap between frontier AI research and the technology businesses actually need
→ AI agents "going rogue," including OpenAI's agents hacking Hugging Face
→ Why neither government regulation nor industry self-regulation has kept pace with AI risk
→ Attribution and accountability challenges when an AI agent causes harm
→ Why leadership must take responsibility for implementing AI meaningful into their workplace
→ Why financial penalties on AI labs have been too small to change behavior
→ Practical steps companies can take to reduce dependency and hype-driven AI spending
→ Talent cultivation and change management as an AI adoption strategy
→ What happens when shareholder value maximization goes unchecked
→ Apple's new CEO John Ternus and Apple's wait-and-see approach to AI
Be sure to follow this channel for insights and perspective from industry leaders, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com to learn more about our offering.
Codestrap
Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordeeks/
Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminrogojan/
Phil:https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-sparks/
Codestrap (X): https://x.com/Codestrap_ai
CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap
Codestrap (Substack): https://codestrap1.substack.com/
Codestrap (Medium): https://medium.com/codestrap
Join FuturOps 2026: The Palantir User Conference!
Register Now: https://www.futurops.com/e/u/checkout/futurops/tickets/order
Date: October 26–27, 2026 (Kicks off Oct 26 @ 12:00 PM)
Location: Dallas, TX
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Contact Code and Connor
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Code and Connor?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
