Josh Elman
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Episodes
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a16z · The New AI Agents That Shop, Plan, and Gossip
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How Can a Gossipy AI Agent Bring Two Friends Closer?
Josh Elman says a gossipy AI agent can bring two friends closer. A friend lost power over a weekend. While the two of them were first onboarding onto an agent, he asked how they met. They told slightly different stories, and the agents poked both of them to reconcile the two versions. They had met at a friend's house, and the agents asked which one knew that person better. The exchange turned into a curiosity game, and the two kept texting on the side. Without an agent in the middle, they would not have had the same moment.
Anish Acharya calls that social indirection. The friend did not know how to text Josh Elman just to say the power was out, because a direct message would feel like overs
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Will AI Agents Make Consumers More Rational?
Josh Elman is not convinced AI agents will make consumers more rational. People still choose what feels most satisfactory, and an agent that curates the options too carefully can miss the mark. Picture sudden hunger: the agent knows the person wants to lose some weight and offers four meal options. Agents give better and faster access to what people already want, and they unlock things that were hard to reach. People keep their own preferences. When an agent misses the same preferences, people switch, import and export their stuff, and pick an agent that fits better.
Anish Acharya calls that risk paternalism. From 30 years in consumer product, even a hint of paternalism will kill a product.
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Will Everyone End Up Using the Same AI Assistant?
Josh Elman says people will not all end up using the same AI assistant. The race to build them is not a zero-sum game yet. The field is still at the beginning, in a Cambrian phase, and there is so much left to invent that builders can learn from one another.
At some point one agent, or a few, might hold most of the behavior. Until then, builders can share what works once and what does not work reliably. He does not expect one agent that does one thing for every person. He expects many products that do many things.
David Pawlan had hosted an agent meetup the night before, with just over 100 people and pitches from 10 assistant builders. The founders were open and eager for feedback, because