Chai And AI Community
A curated, invite-only group where we cut through the AI hype, stay updated on what truly matters, and connect over expert-led discussions, workshops, and hands-on sessions.
A curated, invite-only group where we cut through the AI hype, stay updated on what truly matters, and connect over expert-led discussions, workshops, and hands-on sessions.
Chai and AI is an invite-only community of AI practitioners from leading companies including Google, Amazon, Meta, Anthropic, Cohere, OpenAI, and 90+ others.
Chai and AI is an invite-only community of AI practitioners from leading companies including Google, Amazon, Meta, Anthropic, Cohere, OpenAI, and 90+ others.
Chai and AI is an invite-only community of AI practitioners from leading companies including Google, Amazon, Meta, Anthropic, Cohere, OpenAI, and 90+ others.
Builders shipping production systems, founders scaling AI companies, engineering and product leaders, researchers, and executives from top companies and VCs.
Builders shipping production systems, founders scaling AI companies, engineering and product leaders, researchers, and executives from top companies and VCs.
The name says it all. We’re here to get the chai (the tea) on what’s actually happening in AI. It’s a space to debate and talk about AI with people building at the forefront.
The name says it all. We’re here to get the chai (the tea) on what’s actually happening in AI. It’s a space to debate and talk about AI with people building at the forefront.
The name says it all. We’re here to get the chai (the tea) on what’s actually happening in AI. It’s a space to debate and talk about AI with people building at the forefront.
The name says it all. We’re here to get the chai (the tea) on what’s actually happening in AI. It’s a space to debate and talk about AI with people building at the forefront.
What Happens in the Community
What Happens in the Community
What Happens in the Community
We have a number of initiatives within the community:
We have a number of initiatives within the community:
A lot of these happen as unstructured conversations or weekly build sessions where we go over things together.
A lot of these happen as unstructured conversations or weekly build sessions where we go over things together.
01.
Discussions on the latest applied AI papers
02.
Patterns in production
03.
AMAs with experts in the network
04.
How to be AI-augmented (tutorials, what people have been building)
Featured Speakers
Featured Speakers
Francisco D'souza
Former CEO of Cognizant, Co-Founder of Recognize
Leading Through Uncertainty & The Future of AI-Enabled Services
Uncertainty: create options, avoid single bets
Strategy: portfolio approach (bet, cut losers, double winners)
AI impact: all services moving toward automation
Model: services + SaaS + heavy R&D (10–30%)
Economics: higher margins needed to fund tech
Playbook: high-touch services + proprietary tech (Palantir model)
Jaya Gupta
Partner, Foundation Capital
The Future of Services Software & What VCs Actually Look For
Shift: LLMs enable full workflow automation (not just tasks)
Moat: forward-deployed engineering → pricing power
Pricing: usage-based beats outcome-based
Founders: young ICs (<32) outperform managers
Opportunities: healthcare + supply chain workflows
Challenge: scaling quality & handling edge cases
Gajen Kandiah
President & COO, Hitachi Digital
Driving AI Strategy for Fortune-Scale Companies
Approach: break processes to atomic level → place AI for max value
Execution: short cycles + RAID framework (experiment, measure, go/no-go)
Strategy: AI as growth engine, tied to core business
Principle: don’t “bolt AI” → redesign from the ground up
Focus: prioritize customer value over internal efficiency
Shoutouts: Iskriyana Vasileva & Gary Wong
Gabriel Almeida
Founder & CTO, Langflow
Building a Wildly Successful AI Startup in 2025
Product: modular AI agents + start small & specialize
Speed: iterate fast (fail often, focus on one thing)
GTM: open source as launch strategy
System: flexible infra + integrate (not build everything)
Challenge: efficiency (tokens) + usability (non-technical users)
Jyothi Nookula
Product Director, Netflix
The AI PM Hype & Building AI-Native Products in 2025
Definition: AI-native = AI as core capability (everything built around it)
Approach: problem-first, not “add AI” thinking
PM role: no need to code → understand AI limits & boundaries
Data & use cases: large datasets + automation, personalization, augmentation
Execution: practical checklists + focus on product fundamentals
Vikash Rungta
Ex-Meta (Llama team), Founder
The AI PM Hype & Building AI-Native Products in 2025
Shift: deterministic → probabilistic AI systems
Decisions: trade-offs (precision vs breadth) + SSR framework
Core skill: managing non-determinism
Execution: parallel experiments + fast learning (avoid over-analysis)
Insight: explore latent product value with AI
Francisco D'souza
Former CEO of Cognizant, Co-Founder of Recognize
Leading Through Uncertainty & The Future of AI-Enabled Services
Uncertainty: create options, avoid single bets
Strategy: portfolio approach (bet, cut losers, double winners)
AI impact: all services moving toward automation
Model: services + SaaS + heavy R&D (10–30%)
Economics: higher margins needed to fund tech
Playbook: high-touch services + proprietary tech (Palantir model)
Jaya Gupta
Partner, Foundation Capital
The Future of Services Software & What VCs Actually Look For
Shift: LLMs enable full workflow automation (not just tasks)
Moat: forward-deployed engineering → pricing power
Pricing: usage-based beats outcome-based
Founders: young ICs (<32) outperform managers
Opportunities: healthcare + supply chain workflows
Challenge: scaling quality & handling edge cases
Gajen Kandiah
President & COO, Hitachi Digital
Driving AI Strategy for Fortune-Scale Companies
Approach: break processes to atomic level → place AI for max value
Execution: short cycles + RAID framework (experiment, measure, go/no-go)
Strategy: AI as growth engine, tied to core business
Principle: don’t “bolt AI” → redesign from the ground up
Focus: prioritize customer value over internal efficiency
Shoutouts: Iskriyana Vasileva & Gary Wong
Gabriel Almeida
Founder & CTO, Langflow
Building a Wildly Successful AI Startup in 2025
Product: modular AI agents + start small & specialize
Speed: iterate fast (fail often, focus on one thing)
GTM: open source as launch strategy
System: flexible infra + integrate (not build everything)
Challenge: efficiency (tokens) + usability (non-technical users)
Jyothi Nookula
Product Director, Netflix
The AI PM Hype & Building AI-Native Products in 2025
Definition: AI-native = AI as core capability (everything built around it)
Approach: problem-first, not “add AI” thinking
PM role: no need to code → understand AI limits & boundaries
Data & use cases: large datasets + automation, personalization, augmentation
Execution: practical checklists + focus on product fundamentals
Vikash Rungta
Ex-Meta (Llama team), Founder
The AI PM Hype & Building AI-Native Products in 2025
Shift: deterministic → probabilistic AI systems
Decisions: trade-offs (precision vs breadth) + SSR framework
Core skill: managing non-determinism
Execution: parallel experiments + fast learning (avoid over-analysis)
Insight: explore latent product value with AI
Gabriel Almeida
Founder & CTO, Langflow
Building a Wildly Successful AI Startup in 2025
Product: modular AI agents + start small & specialize
Speed: iterate fast (fail often, focus on one thing)
GTM: open source as launch strategy
System: flexible infra + integrate (not build everything)
Challenge: efficiency (tokens) + usability (non-technical users)
Jyothi Nookula
Product Director, Netflix
The AI PM Hype & Building AI-Native Products in 2025
Definition: AI-native = AI as core capability (everything built around it)
Approach: problem-first, not “add AI” thinking
PM role: no need to code → understand AI limits & boundaries
Data & use cases: large datasets + automation, personalization, augmentation
Execution: practical checklists + focus on product fundamentals
Vikash Rungta
Ex-Meta (Llama team), Founder
The AI PM Hype & Building AI-Native Products in 2025
Shift: deterministic → probabilistic AI systems
Decisions: trade-offs (precision vs breadth) + SSR framework
Core skill: managing non-determinism
Execution: parallel experiments + fast learning (avoid over-analysis)
Insight: explore latent product value with AI
Joining Chai and AI
Joining Chai and AI
Right now, the community is invite-only. Our LevelUp Labs team sources from our network and nominates people who can join.
Right now, the community is invite-only. Our LevelUp Labs team sources from our network and nominates people who can join.
We’ve been very intentional about this because we deeply care about community culture. The conversations we have, the debates we get into, the way we help each other—all of that depends on having the right people in the room. We’re looking for people who contribute meaningfully, who are generous with what they’re learning, who show up not just to take but to give.
We’ve been very intentional about this because we deeply care about community culture. The conversations we have, the debates we get into, the way we help each other—all of that depends on having the right people in the room. We’re looking for people who contribute meaningfully, who are generous with what they’re learning, who show up not just to take but to give.
We’ve been very intentional about this because we deeply care about community culture. The conversations we have, the debates we get into, the way we help each other—all of that depends on having the right people in the room. We’re looking for people who contribute meaningfully, who are generous with what they’re learning, who show up not just to take but to give.
Right now, members of our cohort programs get temporary access to the community and can apply to stay. We’re planning to open an external application process soon that will incorporate our values and make sure we’re bringing in the right kind of people.
Right now, members of our cohort programs get temporary access to the community and can apply to stay. We’re planning to open an external application process soon that will incorporate our values and make sure we’re bringing in the right kind of people.
You can see some of our discussions