Unlock the future of AI tools, context engineering, and practical AI development in this special Episode 50 of Tool Use! We celebrate one year of weekly conversations by bringing back two dozen of the brightest minds in the AI space to share their most valuable lessons and predictions. Dive deep into the evolution from prompt engineering to context engineering, and learn how to master large language models (LLMs) and AI agents for maximum productivity and impact.

In this can't-miss episode, we explore the biggest takeaways from a revolutionary year in AI. Discover the power of reasoning models, the rapid advancement of local models, and the rise of multi-agent systems. Our expert guests, including entrepreneurs, researchers, and builders, discuss the critical importance of mindset, staying curious, and the human element in the age of AI. Learn practical strategies for building with AI, from owning your control flow and creating effective feedback loops to leveraging "vibe coding" and knowing when to use deterministic code versus fuzzy LLM functions.

Explore the latest in AI tooling and workflows, from using WhatsApp as a universal interface to the best practices for evals, tracing, and context management. Hear predictions on the future of AI, including the path to zero-cost intelligence, the rise of home robotics, and the solution to model orchestration. Whether you're a developer, entrepreneur, or just passionate about leveraging AI, this episode is packed with insights to help you stay ahead in this rapidly accelerating industry.

Join us as we discuss how to build for the future, augment human capabilities, and democratize the benefits of AI. Find out why the top 1% of builders approach AI differently and how you can apply their principles to your own projects.

Thank you for an incredible year! To support the show and help us bring on more amazing guests, please like, share, and subscribe.

12 Factor Agents - https://github.com/humanlayer/12-factor-agents

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:05 Ty Fiero - Model Advances

00:04:21 Context Engineering

00:05:49 Ryan Carson - Obsess about context

00:06:23 Richard Abrich - Garbage in, garbage out

00:08:23 Michael Tiffany - More Metaprompt

00:09:13 Mindset

00:12:04 Dexter Horthy - Keep doing the hardest thing

00:15:22 Diamond Bishop - Change is the only constant

00:17:53 Dillion Verma - Build around AI

00:19:30 Freddie Vargus - Don't believe the magic

00:20:49 Wolfram Ravenwolf - Curiosity, motivation, and skepticism

00:22:13 Jake Koenig - Most things you learned are obsolete

00:23:19 Sarah Allali - Know the outcome your expecting

00:24:29 Practical Development and Tooling

00:27:12 Francisco Ingham - WhatsApp and leveraging humans with LLMs

00:30:27 Minki Jung - Standardized evals, tracing, context management

00:32:16 Hai Nghiem - Don't be too smart

00:35:02 Jason McGhee - Three camps of AI tool use

00:38:38 Olga Beregovaya - Right model for the job

00:40:01 Orlando Kalossakas - Prompting is vital

00:40:48 The Human Element

00:43:20 CJ Pais - AI to empower creatives

00:45:05 Kirk Marple - Play with vibe coding

00:47:17 David Cross - Think about the people first

00:48:13 Adam Cohen Hillel - Humans are the bottleneck

00:49:22 Aaron Wong-Ellis - Talk to your customers

00:50:34 Ian Pilon - What is agency?

00:51:56 Future Predictions

00:54:41 Thank you

Please follow our incredible guests:

https://x.com/FieroTy

https://x.com/ryancarson

https://x.com/abrichr

https://x.com/kubla

https://x.com/dexhorthy

https://x.com/diamondbishop

https://x.com/dillionverma

https://x.com/freddie_v4

https://x.com/WolframRvnwlf

https://x.com/ja3k_

https://x.com/SarahAllali7

https://x.com/fpingham

https://x.com/JungMinki7

https://x.com/haithehuman

https://x.com/_jason_today

https://x.com/sunglassesface

https://x.com/cj_pais

https://x.com/KirkMarple

https://x.com/adamcohenhillel

https://x.com/aaronwongellis

https://x.com/IanTimotheos

(and me too)

https://x.com/ToolUseAI

https://x.com/MikeBirdTech

Join the Tool Use Discord: https://discord.gg/PnEGyXpjaX

Unlock massive productivity with AI and learn to code faster than ever. In this episode, 3x exited founder Ryan Carson shares how he's building a one-person startup with AI. Ryan reveals his revolutionary three-part workflow for managing AI developers in Cursor, a system that has supercharged his output. We dive deep into the best AI tools for coding and productivity like Cursor, ChatGPT, and AI agents, and how to use them to go from idea to execution. Ryan also offers invaluable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs on how to leverage AI for business logistics, finance, HR, and even founder therapy. Learn the skills and mindset needed to become a successful solo founder in today's AI-driven world.

Follow Ryan Carson:

https://x.com/ryancarson

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryancarson/

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Connect with us

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https://x.com/ryancarson

00:00:00 - Intro

00:03:35 - How to Use Cursor for AI Development

00:10:37 - Ryan's 3-Part AI Agent Workflow

00:15:38 - Managing AI Context Drift & Hallucinations

00:35:52 - How to Build a 1-Person, AI-Powered Company

00:41:57 - Advice For Aspiring Solo Founders

Subscribe for more insights on AI tools, productivity, and startups.

Tool Use is a weekly conversation with the top AI experts.

Join the Tool Use Discord: https://discord.gg/PnEGyXpjaX

Unlock the secrets to scaling your business globally with powerful AI workflows that can slash costs by up to 80%. In this episode, we're joined by Olga Beregovaya, the VP of AI at Smartling, a world leader in AI-powered translation. Olga shares her 25 years of experience in language technology, from the origins of NLP to the omnipresent A.I. 2.0 era we live in today.

Discover Smartling's internal strategies for deploying AI across their entire organization, including how they leverage AI for lead generation, software development, and enhancing translator productivity. Olga dives deep into the "build vs. buy" debate for AI tools, the critical importance of creating a "golden dataset" for benchmarking models, and how to safely deploy AI at an enterprise scale without introducing latency or hallucinations. Learn about the future of work and the skills you need to thrive—like shifting from a translator to a "multilingual prompt engineer"—and how to develop an AI literacy that will be essential in any field.

Keep up with Olga and Smartling:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/olga-beregovaya-04b5/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/smartling/

Get FREE AI tools pip install tool-use-ai

Connect with us:

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00:00:00 - Intro

00:05:47 - How Smartling Adopts AI as a Global Company

00:10:50 - The Build vs. Buy AI Tool Debate

00:19:17 - How to Deploy AI Systems at a Global Scale

00:31:26 - How Industries Can Survive The AI Wave

00:34:33 - The Most Valuable Skills For an AI Future

Subscribe for more insights on AI tools, productivity, and A.I. deployment.

Tool Use is a weekly conversation with the top AI experts.

Join the Tool Use Discord: https://discord.gg/PnEGyXpjaX

David Cross reveals his step-by-step process for generating emotionally resonant AI content that avoids the uncanny valley. Discover the AI tools and strategies to build your own content factory, including using a custom GPT for scripts , ElevenLabs for realistic AI voice generation , and Midjourney for unique, hand-created style artwork. David breaks down his method for iterating on AI output, the importance of a human-in-the-loop to ensure quality , and how to use AI to create multilingual content for a global audience. This is your guide to leveling up your AI content and making something that truly connects with people.

Connect with David Cross:

Website: https://davidcross.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssorcdivad/

Kids Chatterbox Project: http://kidschatterbox.com/

Get FREE AI tools pip install tool-use-ai

Connect with us

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00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:38 - The AI Content Creation Workflow

00:15:22 - Cost And Time For An AI Podcast

00:18:38 - How To Take AI Content From Good To Great

00:28:18 - Making Your AI Content Multilingual

00:40:38 - Advice for Marketers in the AI Age

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Tool Use is a weekly conversation with AI experts brought to you by Anetic.

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Explore the future of business efficiency with AI agents and cutting-edge DevSecOps strategies as Wolfram RavenWolf, AI Evangelist at EllaMind, joins us to demystify practical AI. Wolfram shares invaluable insights on integrating robust, fair, and effective AI systems into your organization. Learn why AI is humanity's most transformative technology, how to navigate common misconceptions, and the critical role of continuous evaluation and a "virtual coworker" mindset in harnessing its full potential. Discover actionable tips for deploying local AI, optimizing models through prompt engineering, and fostering an "AI affinity" culture that empowers your team to unlock unprecedented productivity and innovation.

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https://x.com/WolframRvnwlf

00:00:00 - intro

00:03:21 - Common AI Misconceptions for Businesses

00:06:32 - Low-Hanging Fruit for AI Adoption

00:11:24 - How to Evaluate & Select an LLM

00:25:51 - Hardware & Hosting for Local AI Models

00:47:04 - Promoting AI Adoption within Companies

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Tool Use is a weekly conversation with AI experts brought to you by Anetic.

Master the art of building AI agents and powerful AI teammates with Diamond Bishop, Director of Engineering and AI at Datadog. In this deep dive, we explore crucial strategies for creating self-improving agent systems, from establishing robust evaluations (evals) and observability to designing effective human-in-the-loop escape hatches. Learn the secrets to building user trust, deciding between prompt engineering and fine-tuning, and managing data sets for peak performance. Diamond shares his expert insights on architecting agents, using LLM as a judge for quality control, and the future of ambient AI in DevSecOps. If you're looking to build your own AI assistant, this episode provides the essential principles and practical advice you need to get started and create systems that learn and improve over time.

Guest: Diamond Bishop, Director of Engineering and AI at Datadog

Learn more about Bits AI SRE: https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/bits-ai-sre/

Datadog MCP Server for Agents: https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/datadog-remote-mcp-server/

Sign up for A.I. coaching for professionals at: https://www.anetic.co

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00:00:00 - Intro

00:03:55 - When To Use an Agent vs a Script

00:05:44 - How to Architect an AI Agent

00:08:07 - Prompt Engineering vs Fine-Tuning

00:11:29 - Building Your First Eval Suite

00:26:06 - The Unsolved Problem in Agent Building

00:31:10 - The Future of Local AI Models & Privacy

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Tool Use is a weekly conversation with AI experts brought to you by Anetic.

Are your AI agents unreliable? In this guide, we reveal a professional system for AI evals to help you build and ship better AI products, faster. Learn how to systematically test LLM performance, evaluate complex tool use, and improve multi-turn conversations. We break down the exact process for building a high-quality eval dataset, using milestones and minefields to track agent behaviour, and how to properly use an LLM as a judge without compromising quality. Stop guessing and start making real, measurable improvements to your AI today.

Check out Quotient AI

https://www.quotientai.co/

Sign up for A.I. coaching for professionals at: https://www.anetic.co

Get FREE AI tools

pip install tool-use-ai

Connect with us https://x.com/ToolUseAI

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https://x.com/freddie_v4

00:00:00 - intro

00:02:54 - Why You Need AI Evals

00:06:13 - How to Evaluate AI Agent Tool Use

00:29:24 - The Process for Building Your First Eval Dataset

00:42:44 - Using an LLM as a Judge The Right Way

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Tool Use is a weekly conversation with AI experts brought to you by Anetic.

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Unlock the secrets of better communication with AI! In this episode, we explore how to use AI for leadership development, enhance your communication skills, and improve user experience (UX) with AI tools. Innovator and author Ian Pilon (Cultivating Clarity) joins us to discuss the future of human-computer interaction beyond the simple chatbot. Learn how to leverage AI as a sparring partner, analyze your subconscious behaviors to become a more effective leader, and use contextual intelligence to get more from your prompts. We cover everything from building AI agents and organizing communities to the practical strategies for using large language models (LLMs) to overcome the blank page problem and prepare for difficult conversations.

Learn more about Ian Pilon:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianpilon/

Get FREE AI tools

pip install tool-use-ai

Connect with us

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https://x.com/MikeBirdTech

https://x.com/IanTimotheos

00:00:00 - intro

00:01:09 - How Logistics & UX Inform AI Development

00:05:42 - The Future of UX in a World of AI

00:18:02 - Using AI as a Mirror for Better Leadership

00:33:43 - Sparring with AI: Role-Playing for Difficult Conversations

00:36:59 - The Power of Contextual Intelligence in AI

00:46:02 - How to Build a Local AI Community

Subscribe for more insights on AI tools, productivity, and communication.

Tool Use is a weekly conversation with AI experts brought to you by Anetic.