Building an AI Company: Creating Real Value from Uncertain Technology

Large Language Models (LLMs) are transforming how we build software, but their real business value is still unclear to many teams. In this talk, I’ll share our experience building an AI company on top of this fast-evolving technology — including lessons learned, mistakes made, and what actually worked.

We’ll start by briefly demystifying AI, covering three major categories: statistical AI, generative media (image and video), and language models, with a focus on why LLMs represent a new paradigm for software development.

Next, we’ll explore how to identify meaningful opportunities when concrete use cases don’t yet exist. I’ll introduce practical frameworks we used to separate hype from real value and decide what problems are worth solving.

Finally, I’ll discuss how to communicate a vision that has no direct comparison. We will chat about storytelling techniques we used to help customers, and teammates understand abstract ideas and align around a shared future.