Future Proof: Building AI Products that Last

About Future Proof: Building AI Products that Last

Future Proof brings top Product and Engineering leaders in B2B SaaS, working on AI products, to share learnings, discuss challenges and the latest developments in the future of B2B software. Producer: Forrest Herlick Host: Ethan Lee

Publisher

Paragon

Category

technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

27 May 2025

Latest episode

14 Apr 2026

Latest episodes

14 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   14 Apr 2026

   AI in Finance: Solving the "Last Mile" Problem with Morten Bruun | Product at Hebbia

   How do you build AI for industries where "average" is a failure? In this episode of Future Proof, Morten Bruun, Member of Technical Staff and Product Manager at Hebbia, breaks down why off-the-shelf models like Claude and ChatGPT aren't enough for the high-stakes worlds of finance and legal.Morten shares his journey from co-founding Flash Docs (acquired by Happier) to developing a platform that manages terabytes of unstructured data for leading investment banks and law firms. We dive deep into: The "Last Mile" Challenge: Why 90% accuracy is effectively 0% for professional standards.Process Engineering: Moving beyond chatbots to create a "canvas" for team-specific workflows. The SaaS-pocalypse: How software companies can differentiate as the cost of code drops to zero. The Technical PM: How AI is compressing feedback loops and turning product managers into builders. Whether you’re a founder navigating the "SaaS-pocalypse" or a product leader integrating AI, Morten’s insights on winning trust in regulated industries are essential.Ready to scale your product’s integrations without the engineering overhead? Visit UseParagon to learn how to ship production-ready integrations in days, not months.Chapters00:00 - Meet Morten Bruun and Hebbia00:42 - From Flash Docs to Acquisition: Morten’s Journey03:15 - Why Finance Needs an Edge (The Problem with "Average" AI)05:18 - Process Engineering: Moving Beyond the 30,000ft View08:02 - The Retrieval Gap: Analyzing Terabytes vs. 20 Documents11:19 - Solving the "Last Mile" for Professional Standards14:19 - High-Stakes Outcomes: Why Precision Matters17:16 - The "Canvas" Model and AI Strategists21:54 - Surviving the SaaS-pocalypse: Differentiation in the AI Age25:49 - The Changing Role of Product Management and Technical Staff36:01 - Winning Trust in Highly Regulated Industries40:43 - Customer Empathy: Focusing on the "Job to be Done"

2. 

   11 Mar 2026

   Braze’s approach to the future of AI-powered personalization

   In the latest episode of Future Proof, we sat down with Kevin Wang, Chief Product Officer at Braze, to unpack how AI is reshaping the relationship between brands and consumers and what marketers need to do to stay ahead of the shift.We cover: Why the next big ad surface isn't search or social and how LLMs will know what you want before you ask How personalization is evolving from coarse-grained categories to something closer to music taste than ice cream flavor Why the real battle in AI-driven commerce isn't capability, it's who owns the consumer context How Braze is using reinforcement learning and in-product agents to give marketers exponential strategic leverage Why human-in-the-loop isn't going away and how the role of the marketer is shifting up the stack What every major platform shift tells us about where brand-to-consumer relationships are headed next Highlights:00:00 — AI as the Next Big Ad Surface: Why LLMs Are Opening Up a Platform Shift Bigger Than Social04:30 — Spelling, Diction & Depth: How Agents Will Personalize Beyond What Facebook and Google Can See09:15 — Who Owns Your Preferences? The Battle Between Foundational Models, Retailers, and Consumers14:00 — Agentic Shopping and the Limits of Automation: Why People Still Want to Buy for Themselves19:30 — Braze's AI Decisioning Studio: Reinforcement Learning, Guardrails, and Offer Fit25:00 — Human-in-the-Loop: Why AI Is Also Really Good at Checking on Humans30:00 — Enterprise AI Adoption: AI Academies, On-Ramps, and Getting Comfortable with Experimentation36:00 — LLMs Are Not Deterministic: What Happens When Your Model Picks Its Own Magic Numbers41:00 — The Future of Brand-to-Consumer Relationships: More Personal, Not More DistantShip integrations 7x fater with Paragon.useparagon.com/?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=organic_social

3. 

   17 Feb 2026

   Databricks’ Approach to MCP, Identity, and Control | Future Proof Ep. 12

   In the latest episode of Future Proof, we sat down with Elise Gonzalez, Staff PM at Databricks, to unpack how Agent Bricks and the MCP marketplace are shaping what enterprise-ready agents actually look like. We cover: Why governance, audit-ability, and user-level identity are the real blockers to enterprise agent adoption How MCP unlocked momentum — and why marketplaces, validation, and control are required to make it safe When multi-agent architectures make sense (and when they just add complexity) Why most MCP servers today won’t survive long-term — and what agent-native tools need to look like How AI is changing who uses data platforms, not just what they build Highlights (00:00) Multi-Agent Architecture From Microservices to Agent Supervisors (02:12) Agent Bricks Overview Core Use Cases Extraction, Knowledge Assistants, Composition (04:01) MCP Marketplace Discovery, Governance and Enterprise Control (07:39) Validating MCP Servers Auth, Permissions and Auditability (11:37) Preventing Data Leakage Tool-Level Controls and Safety Patterns (14:58) MCP vs REST Rebuilding APIs for Agent-Native Workflows (18:48) Multi-Agent Risks Privilege Escalation, Context Sharing and Debugging (22:16) When to Use Multi-Agent vs Single-Agent Architectures (30:13) Why Databricks Invested in AI Agents and Data Governance (33:22) The Shift in Users Engineers, Business Users and Databricks One Ship integrations 10x faster with Paragon

4. 

   13 Jan 2026

   How Intercom built Fin:The Flywheel Behind a Production-Ready AI Agent | Future Proof Ep. 11

   In the latest episode of Future Proof, we sat down with Christine Zdelar, Director of Product at Intercom, to unpack how Fin has evolved from one of the first AI CX agents in production into a best-in-class support agent. We cover: - The Fin Flywheel and why training, testing, and analysis are core to agent success - Why Intercom went all-in on outcome-based pricing- How MCP, permissions, and oversight show up in real-world production systems - What it takes to push AI resolution rates from ~20% to 60% - And why Intercom is investing deeply down the stack, including building its own models Timestamps: (0:00) Clips (0:55) Introduction (1:26) Getting Fin production ready (4:46) Adopting MCP, is it ready? (7:26) Integrating with helpdesks (11:26) Connecting with knowledge bases (13:26) Resolution-based pricing strategy (19:26) Is the market ready for end-to-end AI resolutions? (23:26) Intercom adopting AI processes (25:26) What needs to happen for customers to adopt Fin (28:26) Intercom builds its own models? (34:26) Closing thoughts Ship integrations 7x faster useparagon.com Host: Ethan Lee Guest: Christine Zdelar Produced by: Forrest Herlick

5. 

   25 Nov 2025

   Inside Gong’s AI Strategy: Context, Memory and Human Trust with Gong's VP of Product, Noaa Ilani

   In Episode 10 of Future Proof, we sit down with Noaa Ilani, VP of Product at Gong, to unpack how AI is transforming sales, Gong’s vision for agentic workflows, and what the future of human–AI collaboration really looks like. (0:00) Clips + Introduction (1:50) Fully automated sales rep? (5:00) Sales is built on human trust (5:30) Solving the memory problem (10:00) Understanding conversations (13:00) Accounting for tone (16:20) Embedding agents into other systems? Gong’s vision (22:00) Integrating with other AI tools (23:00) Mitigating missing data (28:35) Human collaboration with AI (34:00) Closing thoughts

6. 

   4 Nov 2025

   Deploying AI systems that enterprise clients trust, with ada.cx Chief Product and Technology Officer

   In the latest episode of Future Proof, building AI products that last, Mike Gozzo, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Ada, shares how Ada is helping enterprises move from scripted chatbots to reasoning-driven AI agents, why trust and human empathy remain the foundation of customer experience, and how metrics like “automated resolution” are redefining success in enterprise AI deployments. Highlights: 0:00 Clips 0:36 Intro 1:54 Future of customer experience 5:00 Building trust 8:00 Getting executive buy-in 10:00 What true resolution looks like 13:00 How Ada measures success with “automated resolution” 16:00 Mirroring human QA processes 18:00 Why domain expertise is the new superpower for AI founders 19:30 Grounding responses with retrieval, context, and memory 22:00 Balancing latency, reasoning, and customer experience 24:00 Deploying agents safely and effectively 26:00 Voice automation and ROI across industries 29:00 Surpassing human agents and the future of AI-driven CX Ship integrations 7x faster: https://www.useparagon.com/ Host: Ethan Lee Guest: Mike Gozzo Produced by: Forrest Herlick

7. 

   14 Oct 2025

   Inside Cohere's Approach to Enterprise AI Agents | Elliott Choi | Director of Product, Cohere

   In the latest episode of Future Proof, building AI products that last, we chat with Elliott Choi, Director of Product at Cohere. Elliott shares how Cohere is shaping the path from simple demos to enterprise deployment, why oversight, auditability, and security are essential for agent adoption, and the role of automation and memory in moving toward fully autonomous AI agents. Highlights: (0:00) Clips (1:07) Intro & $500M fundraise at Cohere (2:20) Defining AI agents for the enterprise (5:00) Traceability, observability & automation guardrails (8:12) Automating well-defined enterprise processes (11:21) Why flashy demos break in enterprise (12:09) Architecture pitfalls: prompts, data sources & security (15:15) Managing context & RAG performance (17:08) Building semantic vs. procedural memory (19:24) Permissioning & secure data access with SSO (21:32) Why memory makes agents sticky (25:54) From automations to fully autonomous agents (26:57) Closing thoughts Ship integrations 7x faster → https://www.useparagon.com/ (https://www.useparagon.com/) Host: Ethan Lee Guest: Elliott Choi Produced by: Forrest Herlick

8. 

   24 Sept 2025

   How to add AI features, without destroying your core app, CPO at Crunchbase, Megh Gautam

   In the latest episode of Future Proof, building AI products that last, we chat with Megh Gautam, Chief Product Officer at Crunchbase. Megh shares how Crunchbase's customer-first approach to AI implementations preserved user trust while transforming search workflows, and practical strategies for rolling out AI features without alienating existing power users. Highlights: (0:00) Intro (1:00) Crunchbase positioning as role of CPO (3:40) Adding AI capabilities to current product (7:15) Learnings from experiments that didn’t work out the way it was expected (10:45) Metrics used to measure AI features delivering value (14:00) How Crunchbase thinks about aligning with user needs, not just cool tech (20:30) Where are AI builders making mistakes between AI technology and their users (24:00) Navigating the prioritization between core platform improvements and AI capabilities (28:30) Closing thoughts Ship integrations 7x faster www.useparagon.com Produced by: Forrest Herlick Host: Ethan Lee Guest: Megh Gautam

9. 

   2 Sept 2025

   Why the best User Experience will Decide the AI Winners | Anant Bhardwaj, Founder & CEO of Instabase

   In today’s episode of Future Proof, we sit down with Anant Bhardwaj, Founder & CEO of Instabase. Anant shares how Instabase pioneered the use of transformer models for unstructured enterprise data, and how the rise of large language models is shifting value creation from field-level accuracy to full end-to-end workflows. We discuss: Finding product-market fit with nascent AI technologies Moving beyond “LLM wrappers” to deliver end-to-end customer value Lessons from building in regulated industries like banking and healthcare Why user experience, not model quality, defines AI product success Highlights: (0:00) Clips (0:53) Opening thoughts (2:15) Instabase early journey before the AI wave (5:28) How new models have shifted product development strategy (10:16) Creating value for customers with LLMs (12:06) Working with heavily regulated customers (15:16) What’s been the hardest about building infrastructure for unstructured data use cases? (21:06) AI infrastructure bets companies should be making today? (23:06) How Agents will work with unstructured data? Host: Ethan Lee https://www.linkedin.com/in/thatethanlee/ Producer: Forrest Herlick https://www.linkedin.com/in/forrestherlick/ Guest: Anant Bhardwaj https://www.linkedin.com/in/anantpb/ Ship integrations 7x faster -> www.useparagon.com Learn more about Instabase -> https://instabase.com/

10. 

    18 Aug 2025

    How Descript designs AI interfaces that feel natural | Laura Burkhauser, VP of Product at Descript

    In today’s episode of Future Proof, we sit down with Laura Burkhauser, VP of Product at Descript. Laura shares how Descript’s design philosophy enables users to maintain control over AI creative workflows, and practical strategies for building AI interfaces that feel collaborative rather than restrictive. We discuss: Designing user interfaces in AI products How to make AI feel natural How to give users a sense of control Highlights (0:00) Clips (0:37) Introduction (1:00) Designing interfaces that make users trust they’re in control (6:00) Open World AI Design Philosophy (8:40) Was there ever a tool you needed to modify once AI got access? (13:45) How to encourage users to understand what AI is good at (19:00) Giving control back to users (20:30) How to handle latency (23:00) Context switching while AI does its work (25:00) Biggest UI opportunities (30:00) Will we progress beyond a chat model?

11. 

    5 Aug 2025

    Why Every AI PM Needs to Run Evals | Aman Khan, Arize AI Head of Product (Ex. Spotify, Apple, Cruise)

    In this episode of Future Proof, we sit down with Aman Khan, the Head of Product at Arize AI. Aman reveals why traditional product metrics fail for AI systems and shares Arize's framework for building evaluation systems that actually predict real-world AI performance, plus the emerging PM skills that separate successful AI products from failed experiments. We discuss: How AI builders should think about evaluations The role of the AI pm and how product management is evolving How you should build with the expectations of foundation models changing. (0:00) Highlights (0:37) Intro (1:40) What is an AI pm (4:10) How PMs are evolving with AI (8:10) The Aha moment in AI (11:50) What AI builders should think about evaluations (19:40) How AI builders best leverage their time in AI evaluations (23:40) Prompt iteration - if your evaluations are not ideal, how do you iterate? (27:40) What’s the minimum viable eval someone should write (30:40) How would prioritization change based on the future of AI models (36:40) Final thoughts (38:00) Ethan's reflection Ship integrations 7x faster https://www.useparagon.com/ Watch all Future Proof episodes: https://www.useparagon.com/future-proof

12. 

    22 Jul 2025

    Why MCP products struggle with enterprise adoption | Michael Grinich, CEO and Founder WorkOS

    In this episode of Future Proof - Building AI products that last, we sit down with WorkOS founder and CEO, Michael Grinich, on what it takes to make MCPs production-ready. We discuss: What it means to be ‘MC Pilled’ What’s missing from MCP to make it enterprise-ready? How to build a product for a world of agentic users Highlights (0:00) Clips (0:44) intro (1:11) MCP night (3:49) What is preventing demos from production ready AI agents (6:41 ) Authorizing tools in MCP (9:01) Should AI builders develop protocols themselves? (11:11) When should you build a MCP server (12:41) MCP ecommerce shop (14:05) Why are permissions a problem in rag (22:11) WorkOS acquisition of warrant (FGA) (26:11) How auth changes once agents become common users of webapps (oAuth 3.0) (30:11) How should builders shape their apps to be prepped for the future? Scale your AI product's integration roadmap with Paragon: https://www.useparagon.com/?utm_source=futureproofpodcast (https://www.useparagon.com/?utm_source=futureproofpodcast) Sign up for their MCP night → https://workos.com/mcp-night (https://workos.com/mcp-night)

13. 

    16 Jun 2025

    Beating OpenAI - How to build your Niche | Richard Socher, CEO and Cofounder You.com

    Richard Socher, CEO and Co-founder of You.com, discusses outperforming OpenAI by pivoting from consumer search to enterprise solutions and building a competitive advantage, in this interview.

14. 

    27 May 2025

    How Box builds for Enterprise AI | Aaron Levie

    Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, discusses Box's AI strategy and the critical role of data quality, access controls, and APIs in developing successful enterprise AI products in this interview.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 13 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

13

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

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Guest appearances

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