Databricks’ new AI agent tells CEO Ali Ghodsi the unvarnished truth
At 12,000 employees, AI Ghodsi is the first to admit that he can't know everyone and that they are unlikely to confess the things that go wrong to him. But he doesn't need them to. He uses Databricks' newly revised Genie agent for that.
Databricks introduced an upgraded version of its AI agent, Genie, on Wednesday. This enhanced version of the AI agent can handle multi-step jobs that typically take a considerable amount of time to complete. Genie achieves this by leveraging an ontology that the company has developed to provide the AI agent with the necessary context from the data stored on the Databricks platform.
Corporate executives can now delegate various tasks to the agent, which will carry them out autonomously. To demonstrate the capabilities of Genie, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi showcased how he employs the AI agent internally. Rather than presenting a product demonstration, Ghodsi engaged with his personal agent and guided me through recent conversations and visualizations.
He illustrated how the agent evaluated areas of an employee satisfaction survey where the company underperformed, as well as how it assisted him in assessing and discarding suggested fixes for those low scores. Additionally, Ghodsi demonstrated how Genie condensed a lengthy sales pitch that had gone poorly, including the requested features from the prospect needed before making a purchase.
The agent also prepared Ghodsi for a podcast interview by reviewing his previous appearances and generating potential questions. What stood out during their conversation was that Ghodsi was utilizing Genie to uncover information he would typically not hear as the CEO. This AI agent served as a source of candid truth about the areas that required immediate attention.
"Have you heard of Dunbar's number?" Ghodsi asked, referring to the magic number, theoretically the maximum number of people with whom humans can maintain stable relationships. In the context of a small startup, a CEO knows everyone, has direct relationships with them, and they feel secure in voicing negative feedback directly. However, with a workforce of 12,000 employees, Ghodsi acknowledged that he cannot personally maintain such close relationships with all of them.
He emphasized that AI agents, particularly Genie, can be beneficial for businesses with more than 150 employees, as it enables individuals who typically would not feel comfortable sharing negative information to do so. Ghodsi's own use of Genie (commonly referred to as dogfooding) is a key reason why Databricks is now positioning the AI agent as an always-on assistant for business leaders.
He also mentioned using it in his personal life, instead of resorting to alternative, potentially less secure options like OpenClaw, Instinct, or Muse. Ghodsi is confident that Genie can help address the growing concern of AI costs escalating in the corporate world. He stated that Databricks' Unity Gateway product can help manage these costs by setting usage limits and allowing for the utilization of less expensive open-weight models.
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