Latest news with #Retool
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The CEO of a top AI startup gave a stark warning about the tech's impact on the labor market
This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter. You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here. Good morning! A federal court ruled President Donald Trump doesn't have the authority to impose some of his tariffs. The three-judge panel's unanimous ruling declared the tariffs would be vacated, throwing a massive wrench into what has been a key piece of Trump's second term. The federal government has filed a notice of appeal on the court's decision. We're also looking at Anthropic's CEO stark warning about the tech's impact on the labor market. What's on deck Markets: The internet has a new favorite meme trade. Tech: Nvidia shows no signs of slowing down amid tariff uncertainty. Business: Elon Musk says his time as a government employee is coming to an end and thanks Trump. But first, AI in the office.A top AI executive is ringing the alarm bell on … AI. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and push unemployment to as high as 20% within the next five years. The above might seem like a coy way of touting a product's power in an ultra-competitive space, but Amodei told Axios he has "a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming." Some companies are ready to push the limits of an AI-led workforce. Take Retool, a platform for building AI applications. Its CEO, David Hsu, told BI's Lakshmi Varanasi its clients are asking "How do we get LLMs to actually replace labor?" It wasn't always supposed to be like this. Remember when AI was going to supercharge employees? The tech was going to make us as efficient as possible! Humans and AI — the best collab since peanut butter and jelly. So what happened? AI costs a lot of money to develop, and that's a problem with so much economic uncertainty. Sprinkle in an industry push to increase efficiency and reduce bureaucracy, and robots suddenly look much better than humans. The great AI automation comes with risks, though. (And I'm not talking about entrusting your business to a black box you don't really understand.) As BI's Katie Notopoulos recently detailed, the excitement a CEO (and their investors) has over AI adoption isn't always matched by their customer base. Just ask Duolingo. It's not bad news when it comes to AI. I hate to leave you on such a downer, especially right before a summer Friday. Here are some ways people are making AI work for them. Mark Quinn saw the work he was doing at a startup quickly become irrelevant thanks to the launch of GPT-4. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Quinn found a silver lining: use AI to help find his next gig. Here's how he did it. AI was supposed to kill ad agencies. (At least, that's what OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman once predicted.) But three creative directors told BI's Lara O'Reilly how AI has helped them win more business. Finally, something for the young developers out there. Plenty of tech executives have said junior coders are an endangered species thanks to AI's programming capabilities. But AWS executive Rory Richardson sees AI giving a big boost to people early in their careers, allowing them to catch up to veteran employees. She's not alone in viewing AI as the great equalizer in the workplace. 1. GameStop made its first-ever crypto investment. Making good on its promise to buy bitcoin, the gaming retailer announced that it purchased 4,710 tokens, which are worth about $510 million. It's the latest company to add bitcoin to its balance sheet. 2. For Wall Street, TACO Tuesday is now every day. Investors are living by a new rule to play the market: TACO, or "Trump Always Chickens Out," the idea that markets can bet on Trump walking back tariff proposals. 3. Wealthy clients wanted. JPMorgan is opening 14 new financial centers across four states, offering highly specialized services to people with at least $750,000 in deposits and investments. It's part of the bank's greater mission to woo the millionaire class. 1. Meta wants to get physical. The tech giant is working on a project to open physical stores and hire retail workers, per an internal communication seen by BI. The plan could boost its hardware products' sales, although it's unclear how many stores Meta might open and when. 2. Apple's playing catch-up in the AI race. Apple has very few of the AI building blocks its competitors enjoy, some of which have been in the making for 25 years. It may need to partner with rivals or make acquisitions to catch up, BI's Alistair Barr writes. 3. Nvidia beat Wall Street's Q1 forecast. The chip giant reported revenue of $44.06 billion, compared to estimates of $43.32 billion, with the stock up 3% in after-hours trading. However, Nvidia's China sales were hit hard by US export restrictions, and it expects to take $8 billion in losses of H20 chips revenue in Q2. 1. Millennial divorce is here, and it's expensive. Divorce isn't as common among millennials as it was among boomers, but it's much more financially disruptive. It can potentially decimate savings and lock divorcees out of the housing market. Often, women pay the steepest price. 2. Elon Musk's exit from the government. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO announced on Wednesday his time as a US government employee is coming to an end, and thanked President Trump for the opportunity to "reduce wasteful spending" at DOGE. His announcement came a day after he criticized Trump's "big beautiful bill," saying it undermined DOGE's work. 3. Trump's Big Law losing streak. Federal judges have blocked the Trump administration's executive orders targeting WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Perkins Coie, and they're citing Trump's deal with Paul Weiss as an example. Here are five of the sharpest takedowns from judges so far. A Carta exec's resignation letter accused the CEO of sexism. She says she didn't write it. Wired's editor told BI's Peter Kafka how she got 62,000 new subscribers in two weeks. Marc Benioff-backed influencer agency Whalar Group is buying a creator startup for $20 million as M&A ramps up. 'Lilo & Stitch' is a smash hit. Here are the movies Disney could remake next. A global talent leader at EY shares the three soft skills she looks for in job applicants. A Salesforce exec tells BI there's an even more important skill for employees than coding. McKinsey's staff numbers have dropped by more than 10% in the last 18 months. My name is Chad. Yes, I'm white, work an office job, and sometimes I wear a vest. Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes revised GDP growth figures for Q1 2025. "Manhattanhenge" — when the sunset aligns perfectly with Manhattan's street grid — returns. Costco, Gap, and Best Buy report earnings. The Business Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
The CEO of a top AI startup gave a stark warning about the tech's impact on the labor market
Good morning! A federal court ruled President Donald Trump doesn't have the authority to impose some of his tariffs. The three-judge panel's unanimous ruling declared the tariffs would be vacated, throwing a massive wrench into what has been a key piece of Trump's second term. The federal government has filed a notice of appeal on the court's decision. We're also looking at Anthropic's CEO stark warning about the tech's impact on the labor market. What's on deck Markets: The internet has a new favorite meme trade. Business: Elon Musk says his time as a government employee is coming to an end and thanks Trump. But first, AI in the office. If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. The big story AI's new job Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI A top AI executive is ringing the alarm bell on … AI. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and push unemployment to as high as 20% within the next five years. The above might seem like a coy way of touting a product's power in an ultra-competitive space, but Amodei told Axios he has "a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming." Some companies are ready to push the limits of an AI-led workforce. Take Retool, a platform for building AI applications. Its CEO, David Hsu, told BI's Lakshmi Varanasi its clients are asking " How do we get LLMs to actually replace labor?" It wasn't always supposed to be like this. Remember when AI was going to supercharge employees? The tech was going to make us as efficient as possible! Humans and AI — the best collab since peanut butter and jelly. So what happened? AI costs a lot of money to develop, and that's a problem with so much economic uncertainty. Sprinkle in an industry push to increase efficiency and reduce bureaucracy, and robots suddenly look much better than humans. The great AI automation comes with risks, though. (And I'm not talking about entrusting your business to a black box you don't really understand.) As BI's Katie Notopoulos recently detailed, the excitement a CEO (and their investors) has over AI adoption isn't always matched by their customer base. Just ask Duolingo. I hate to leave you on such a downer, especially right before a summer Friday. Here are some ways people are making AI work for them. Mark Quinn saw the work he was doing at a startup quickly become irrelevant thanks to the launch of GPT-4. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Quinn found a silver lining: use AI to help find his next gig. Here's how he did it. AI was supposed to kill ad agencies. (At least, that's what OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman once predicted.) But three creative directors told BI's Lara O'Reilly how AI has helped them win more business. Finally, something for the young developers out there. Plenty of tech executives have said junior coders are an endangered species thanks to AI's programming capabilities. But AWS executive Rory Richardson sees AI giving a big boost to people early in their careers, allowing them to catch up to veteran employees. She's not alone in viewing AI as the great equalizer in the workplace. 3 things in markets 1. GameStop made its first-ever crypto investment. Making good on its promise to buy bitcoin, the gaming retailer announced that it purchased 4,710 tokens, which are worth about $510 million. It's the latest company to add bitcoin to its balance sheet. 2. For Wall Street, TACO Tuesday is now every day. Investors are living by a new rule to play the market: TACO, or " Trump Always Chickens Out," the idea that markets can bet on Trump walking back tariff proposals. 3. Wealthy clients wanted. JPMorgan is opening 14 new financial centers across four states, offering highly specialized services to people with at least $750,000 in deposits and investments. It's part of the bank's greater mission to woo the millionaire class. 3 things in tech 1. Meta wants to get physical. The tech giant is working on a project to open physical stores and hire retail workers, per an internal communication seen by BI. The plan could boost its hardware products' sales, although it's unclear how many stores Meta might open and when. 2. Apple's playing catch-up in the AI race. Apple has very few of the AI building blocks its competitors enjoy, some of which have been in the making for 25 years. It may need to partner with rivals or make acquisitions to catch up, BI's Alistair Barr writes. 3. Nvidia beat Wall Street's Q1 forecast. The chip giant reported revenue of $44.06 billion, compared to estimates of $43.32 billion, with the stock up 3% in after-hours trading. However, Nvidia's China sales were hit hard by US export restrictions, and it expects to take $8 billion in losses of H20 chips revenue in Q2. 3 things in business 1. Millennial divorce is here, and it's expensive. Divorce isn't as common among millennials as it was among boomers, but it's much more financially disruptive. It can potentially decimate savings and lock divorcees out of the housing market. Often, women pay the steepest price. 2. Elon Musk's exit from the government. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO announced on Wednesday his time as a US government employee is coming to an end, and thanked President Trump for the opportunity to "reduce wasteful spending" at DOGE. His announcement came a day after he criticized Trump's "big beautiful bill," saying it undermined DOGE's work. 3. Trump's Big Law losing streak. Federal judges have blocked the Trump administration's executive orders targeting WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Perkins Coie, and they're citing Trump's deal with Paul Weiss as an example. Here are five of the sharpest takedowns from judges so far. In other news A Carta exec's resignation letter accused the CEO of sexism. She says she didn't write it. Wired's editor told BI's Peter Kafka how she got 62,000 new subscribers in two weeks. Marc Benioff-backed influencer agency Whalar Group is buying a creator startup for $20 million as M&A ramps up. 'Lilo & Stitch' is a smash hit. Here are the movies Disney could remake next. A global talent leader at EY shares the three soft skills she looks for in job applicants. A Salesforce exec tells BI there's an even more important skill for employees than coding. McKinsey's staff numbers have dropped by more than 10% in the last 18 months. My name is Chad. Yes, I'm white, work an office job, and sometimes I wear a vest. Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BI John Minchillo/AP What's happening today The Business Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
CEO of Retool, an AI company that works with BCG, says AI is here to replace labor
Retool is launching a platform for AI to automate tasks. The system, Agents, allows users to build agents on top of every large language model on the market. Retool's CEO says the launch comes as leaders ask: "How do we get LLMs to actually replace labor?" While public debates swirl around AI ethics and safety, Retool CEO David Hsu said the real conversation his clients are having is simpler: "How do we get LLMs to actually replace labor?" Retool, a platform for building AI applications that works with consulting firms like Boston Consulting Group and companies like Amazon Web Services and Databricks, has an answer. On Wednesday, Retool launched Agents, its version of AI agents. Retool's system is meant to help users build, test, and manage agents. "People are kind of scared to talk about it publicly, and actually, many of our customers even are kind of scared to talk about it publicly," Hsu told Business Insider of replacing labor. But as companies debate ways to automate jobs with large language models, they're also dabbling in the next generation. On a podcast last year, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said that "we're hitting the upper limits of the LLMs right now" and that the future lies in autonomous agents. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said he believes we'll all be working alongside agents and "AI employees" one day. These virtual assistants don't just respond to queries or make predictions from patterns but also complete tasks autonomously by breaking down problems, outlining plans, and troubleshooting when they encounter a tough problem. 2025 has been billed as the year of agents, as companies such as OpenAI, Salesforce, and Glean have launched platforms to help people build and manage agents. Retool's Agents not only allows users to build agents on top of every large language model on the market but also tackles two areas Hsu sees as key to making agents more effective. One is building "hyperspecific" agents, Hsu said. These are more accurate than agents set up to do broad tasks like browsing the web. The second is an agent management system Hsu described as a kind of "god view" which allows users to observe what agents are doing at any given point, including past behavior. "You can micromanage agents, and they don't care if they have to be micromanaged," Hsu said. Hsu said customers were already using agents for external work like customer service. He gave an example of a company that built an agent to handle customer refunds using three tools: one to look up customers by name, another to find their latest invoice in the payments platform Stripe, and a third to issue the refund. Companies are also redesigning internal work with agents, using them as stand-ins for middle management. Some clients are using agents to analyze meetings and go back to employees and say, "Hey, actually, you didn't do well in this meeting," Hsu said. One company, he said, is even considering doing away with sales managers because the "agent manager" is giving more objective feedback. Retool's agents use a pay-by-the-hour model, starting at $3 an hour. Customers pay for agents only when they're actively working, and rates are based on the LLM they're using. That means that rather than pay for an employee, companies can outsource work to a bot for an hourly wage. The strategy reflects concerns that companies have raised about returns on artificial intelligence investment. BCG's AI Radar survey of over 1,800 C-level executives found that while 75% ranked generative AI in their top three strategic priorities, only 25% said they saw value in it. Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
CEO of Retool, an AI company that works with BCG, says AI is here to replace labor
While public debates swirl around AI ethics and safety, Retool CEO David Hsu said the real conversation his clients are having is simpler: "How do we get LLMs to actually replace labor?" Retool, a platform for building AI applications that works with consulting firms like Boston Consulting Group and companies like AWS and Databricks, has an answer. On Wednesday, Retool launched Agents, its version of AI agents. Retool's system will help users build, test, and manage AI agents. "People are kind of scared to talk about it publicly, and actually, many of our customers even are kind of scared to talk about it publicly," Hsu told Business Insider of replacing labor. But as companies debate ways to automate jobs with large language models, they're also dabbling in the next generation. On a podcast last year, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said, "We're hitting the upper limits of the LLMs right now," and that the future lies in autonomous agents. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said he believes we'll all be working alongside agents and " AI employees" one day. These virtual assistants don't just respond to queries or make predictions from patterns; they complete tasks autonomously by breaking down problems, outlining plans, and troubleshooting when they encounter a tough problem. The year 2025 has been billed as the year of agents, as companies from OpenAI to Salesforce to Glean have launched platforms to help people build and manage agents. Retool's Agents will not only allow users to build agents on top of every large language model on the market, but also tackle two areas Hsu sees as key to making agents more effective. One is to build "hyper-specific" agents, Hsu said. These are more accurate than agents set up to do broad tasks like browsing the web. The second is an agent management system called "God View" that allows users to observe what agents are doing at any given point, including recording past behavior. "You can micromanage agents, and they don't care if they have to be micromanaged," Hsu said. Hsu said customers are already using agents for external work like customer service. He gave an example of a company that built an agent to handle customer refunds using three tools: one to look up customers by name, another to find their latest invoice in the payments platform Stripe, and a third to issue the refund. Companies are also redesigning internal work with agents, using them as stand-ins for middle management. Some clients are using agents to analyze meetings and go back to employees and say, "Hey, actually, you didn't do well in this meeting," Hsu said. One company, he said, is even considering doing away with sales managers because the "agent manager" is giving more objective feedback. Retool's agents are priced according to a pay-by-the-hour model, starting at $3 per hour. Customers only pay for agents when they're actively working, and according to the LLM they're using. That means that rather than pay for an employee, companies can outsource work to a bot for an hourly wage. The strategy reflects concerns that companies have raised about returns on AI investment. BCG's AI Radar report of over 1,800 C-level executives revealed that while 75% rank generative AI in their top three strategic priorities, only 25% said they see value in it.
Business Wire
21-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Baseten Launches New Inference Products to Accelerate MVPs into Production Applications
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Baseten, the leader for mission-critical inference, announced the public launch of Baseten Model APIs and the closed beta of Baseten Training today. These new products enable AI teams to seamlessly transition from rapid prototyping to scaling in production, building on Baseten's proprietary inference stack. In recent months, new releases of DeepSeek, Llama, and Qwen models erased the quality gap between open and closed models. Organizations are more incentivized than ever to use open models in their products. Many AI teams have been limited to testing open models at low scale due to insufficient performance, reliability, and economics offered by model endpoint providers. While easy to get started with, the deficiencies of these shared model endpoints have fundamentally gated enterprises' ability to convert prototypes into high-functioning products. Baseten's new products - Model APIs and Training - solve two critical bottlenecks in the AI lifecycle. Both products are built using Baseten's Inference Stack and Inference-optimized Infrastructure, which power inference at scale in production for leading AI companies like Writer, Descript, and Abridge. Using Model APIs, developers can instantly access open-source models optimized for maximum inference performance and cost-efficiency to rapidly create production-ready minimum viable products (MVPs) or test new workloads. 'In the AI market, your number one differentiator is how fast you can move,' said Tuhin Srivastava, co-founder and CEO of Baseten. 'Model APIs give developers the speed and confidence to ship AI features knowing that we've handled the heavy lifting on performance and scale.' Baseten Model APIs enable AI engineers to test open models with a confident scaling story in place from day one. As inference increases, Model APIs customers can easily transfer to Dedicated Deployments that provide greater reliability, performance, and economics at scale. "With Baseten, we now support open-source models like DeepSeek and Llama in Retool, giving users more flexibility for what they can build,' said DJ Zappegos, Engineering Manager at Retool. 'Our customers are creating AI apps and workflows, and Baseten's Model APIs deliver the enterprise-grade performance and reliability they need to ship to production." Customers can also use Baseten's new Training product to rapidly train and tune models, which will result in superior inference performance, quality, and cost-efficiency to further optimize inference workloads. Unlike traditional training solutions that operate in siloed research environments, Baseten Training runs on the same production-optimized infrastructure that powers its inference. This coherence ensures that models trained or fine-tuned on Baseten will behave consistently in production, with no last-minute refactoring. Together, the latest offerings enable customers to get products to market more rapidly, improve performance and quality, and reduce costs for mission-critical inference workloads These launches reinforce Baseten's belief that product-focused AI teams must care deeply about inference performance, cost, and quality. 'Speed, reliability, and cost-efficiency are non-negotiables, and that's where we devote 100 percent of our focus,' said Amir Haghighat, co-founder and CTO of Baseten. 'Our Baseten Inference Stack is purpose-built for production AI because you can't just have one piece work well. It takes everything working well together, which is why we ensure that each layer of the Inference Stack is optimized to work with the other pieces.' 'Having lifelike text-to-speech requires models to operate with very low latency and very high quality,' said Amu Varma, co-founder of Canopy Labs. 'We chose Baseten as our preferred inference provider for Orpheus TTS because we want our customers to have the best performance possible. Baseten's Inference Stack allows our customers to create voice applications that sound as close to human as possible.' Teams can start with a quick MVP and seamlessly scale it to a dedicated, production-grade deployment when needed, without changing platforms. An enterprise can prototype a feature on Baseten Cloud, then graduate to its own private clusters or on-prem deployment (via Baseten's hybrid and self-hosted options) for greater control, performance tuning, and cost optimization, all with the same code and tooling. This 'develop once, deploy anywhere' capability directly results from Baseten's Inference-optimized Infrastructure, which abstracts the complexity of multi-cloud and on-premise orchestration for the user. The news follows on a year of considerable growth for the company. In February, Baseten announced the close of a series C funding round co-led by IVP and Spark and which moved its total amount of venture capital funding to $135 million. It was recently named to Forbes AI 50 2025, a list of the pre-eminent privately held tech companies in AI which also featured a number of companies that Baseten powers 100 percent of the inference for, like Writer and Abridge. About Baseten Baseten is the leader in infrastructure software for high-scale AI products, offering the industry's most powerful AI inference platform. Committed to delivering exceptional performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency, Baseten is on a mission to help the next great AI products scale. Top-tier investors, including IVP, Spark, Greylock, Conviction, Base Case, and South Park Commons back Baseten. Learn more at
