Episode 28: From Context Engineering to AI Agent Harnesses: The New Software Discipline
Lance Martin of LangChain joins High Signal to outline a new playbook for engineering in the AI era, where the ground is constantly shifting under the feet of builders. He explains how the exponential improvement of foundation models is forcing a complete rethink of how software is built, revealing why top products from Claude Code to Manus are in a constant state of re-architecture simply to keep up.
We dig into why the old rules of ML engineering no longer apply, and how Rich Sutton's "bitter lesson" dictates that simple, adaptable systems are the only ones that will survive. The conversation provides a clear framework for leaders on the critical new disciplines of context engineering to manage cost and reliability, the architectural power of the "agent harness" to expand capabilities without adding complexity, and why the most effective evaluation of these new systems is shifting away from static benchmarks and towards a dynamic model of in-app user feedback.
LINKS
Lance on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lance-martin-64a33b5/)
Context Engineering for Agents by Lance Martin (https://rlancemartin.github.io/2025/06/23/context_engineering/)
Learning the Bitter Lesson by Lance Martin (https://rlancemartin.github.io/2025/07/30/bitter_lesson/)
Context Engineering in Manus by Lance Martin (https://rlancemartin.github.io/2025/10/15/manus/)
Context Rot: How Increasing Input Tokens Impacts LLM Performance by Chroma (https://research.trychroma.com/context-rot)
Building effective agents by Erik Schluntz and Barry Zhang at Anthropic (https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-agents)
Effective context engineering for AI agents by Anthropic (https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/effective-context-engineering-for-ai-agents)
How we built our multi-agent research system by Anthropic (https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/multi-agent-research-system)
Measuring AI Ability to Complete Long Tasks by METR (https://metr.org/blog/2025-03-19-measuring-ai-ability-to-complete-long-tasks/)
Your AI Product Needs Evals by Hamel Husain (https://hamel.dev/blog/posts/evals/index.html)
Introducing Roast: Structured AI workflows made easy by Shopify (https://shopify.engineering/introducing-roast)
Watch the podcast episode on YouTube (https://youtu.be/2Muxy3wE-E0)
Delphina's Newsletter (https://delphinaai.substack.com/)
--------
50:34
--------
50:34
Episode 27: Why Your Data Team Doesn't Have a Seat at the Table (And How to Earn It)
Paras Doshi (Head of Data, Opendoor; former data leader at Amazon) joins High Signal to unpack the playbook for building an indispensable data function. He shares his experience tackling the classic scaling challenge of fragmented data at Opendoor, where rapid growth led to inconsistent metrics across the business, and turning the data function into a centralized strategic asset.
We dive deep into how to earn a true seat at the table, why he believes AI is creating the "100x individual contributor," and how the principles of agency, autonomy, and adaptability are the new essentials for data careers. The conversation also explores the pragmatic divide between batch and real-time ML, how to identify a truly data-led company, and why leaders must shield their top talent to unlock disproportionate impact.
LINKS
Paras Doshi on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/doshiparas/)
Insight Extractor, Paras' blog on analytics, data science, and business intelligence (https://insightextractor.com/)
Watch the conversation on YouTube (https://youtu.be/DDSKxL_JeLc)
Delphina's Newsletter (https://delphinaai.substack.com/)
--------
41:35
--------
41:35
Episode 26: Gen AI's True Cost: Why Today's Wins Are Tomorrow's Debts
Vishnu Ram Venkataraman (Generative AI Executive & Entrepreneur; former AI Leader at Credit Karma and Intuit) joins High Signal to unpack the true cost of generative AI. Having scaled AI solutions impacting over 140 million users, Vishnu reveals why the ease of shipping Gen AI prototypes often masks significant operational and engineering debts, challenging the conventional wisdom of rapid deployment.
We dive deep into the strategic shift from traditional ML to Gen AI, discussing why the shelf value of code is dramatically falling, how to design new organizational triads for continuous iteration, and the critical differences in testing probabilistic AI systems. The conversation also explores how to manage risk with sensitive data, the power of synthetic data in early development, and which mature ML practices remain indispensable in the new AI era.
LINKS
Vishnu on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishnuvram/)
Fei-Fei Li on Generative AI as a Civilizational Technology (https://high-signal.delphina.ai/episode/fei-fei-on-how-human-centered-ai-actually-gets-built)
Tim O'Reilly on The End of Programming As We Know It (https://high-signal.delphina.ai/episode/tim-oreilly-on-the-end-of-programming-as-we-know-it)
Watch the conversation on YouTube (https://youtu.be/vDQdCl_EOKg)
Delphina's Newsletter (https://delphinaai.substack.com/)
--------
43:14
--------
43:14
Episode 25: How Data-Driven Growth Redefined a Media Giant
Sergey Fogelson (VP of Data Science, Televisa Univision) joins High Signal to reveal how the world’s largest Spanish-language media company built a sophisticated data engine from the ground up. This transformation fueled a tenfold expansion of its digital streaming business by redefining how the company connects with 300 million viewers worldwide. At the heart of this success is a proprietary household graph that creates a single, privacy-first view of a massive and culturally diverse audience.
We dig into the journey from basic data unification to building production-ready recommendation engines, how his team uses embeddings on user behavior to uncover surprising connections in content consumption, and the trade-offs between investing in internal data tools versus direct revenue-driving products. The conversation also explores a pragmatic framework for AI adoption, showing how foundational machine learning often outperforms chasing the latest trends and where LLMs can deliver real, measurable value.
LINKS
Sergey Fogelson on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergeyfogelson/)
Watch the conversation on YouTube (https://youtu.be/f9R8mGcwygU)
Delphina's Newsletter (https://delphinaai.substack.com/)
--------
56:22
--------
56:22
Episode 24: Rebuilding an Airline for the 21st Century: LATAM's Data-Driven Transformation
Andrés Bucchi (Chief Data Officer, LATAM Airlines) joins High Signal to unpack how a century-old airline reinvented itself with data and AI—and how that transformation is unlocking value from fuel efficiency to fraud detection. LATAM has built a massive data operation, experimenting across everything from pricing to operations, while customers benefit from a more reliable and secure travel experience.
We dig into how LATAM fostered an experimentation culture, why existing data infrastructure is a critical asset, and how the biggest bottleneck in AI adoption isn't the technology itself, but human decision-making. The conversation also looks ahead to the future of generative AI as a software engineering problem, and the organizational changes needed to unlock its full potential.
LINKS
Andrés Bucchi on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bucchi/)
Tim O'Reilly on The End of Programming As We Know It, High Signal (https://high-signal.delphina.ai/episode/tim-oreilly-on-the-end-of-programming-as-we-know-it)
Watch the conversation on YouTube (https://youtu.be/U_eaOmt-Rw4)
Delphina's Newsletter (https://delphinaai.substack.com/)
Welcome to High Signal, the podcast for data science, AI, and machine learning professionals.
High Signal brings you the best from the best in data science, machine learning, and AI. Hosted by Hugo Bowne-Anderson and produced by Delphina, each episode features deep conversations with leading experts, such as Michael Jordan (UC Berkeley), Andrew Gelman (Columbia) and Chiara Farranato (HBS).
Join us for practical insights from the best to help you advance your career and make an impact in these rapidly evolving fields.
More on our website: https://high-signal.delphina.ai/
Netherlands