Walt Rumpf

Technology leader sharing insights around #AI and #DataStrategy mixed in with my favorite sports and fantasy gaming takes #F1 @Broncos @Nuggets

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

Time moves so slow when you’re waiting for an uber in Vegas

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

This week was a wildly extreme example of a trend I'm obsessed with in sports media.

I have consumed, conservatively, 10 hours of NBA podcast gossip this week (80% Luka analysis/conspiracies). Meanwhile, I genuinely don't think I've watched ten consecutive minutes of NBA on TV since the Finals.

On the other hand, I have consumed maybe 15 mins of Super Bowl media content this week (rare case, to be clear; I subscribe to 4 or 5 NFL pods I adore, but my appetite for Luka gossip, plus the rematch nature of the KC-Philly SB, temporarily squeezed them out). Meanwhile, I'll watch every minute of the Super Bowl from the national anthem to the confetti drop.

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

One day later. Of all the #superbowlads this is the one I remember. I liked the simplicity and journey. The black and white branding for AI leaves it open for humans to add the color.
(Also this Superbowl ad spot cost $16M+)

[OpenAI @OpenAI]

What do you want to create next?

[Bryce Roberts @bryce]

Stargate, Deep Seek and the Futility of Making Predictions about AI in 2025 w/ @jacsrice of @tribe_ai

Making any kind of time bounded predictions about where AI will be in the year of our lord 2025 is a fools errand. But, we’re suckers for this stuff, so we asked Jackie from Tribe to revise the State of AI download we did last year and orient it to what she sees coming for AI in the enterprise in the new year. L

No sooner did we record the conversation than OpenAI announced Stargate, Operator and Deep Seek shot to the top of the App Store. And made the whole conversation form the week before feel dated. 

But dated is different than timeless and I think what Jackie does an incredible job doing is anchoring founders and executives on the timeless principles of leveraging AI to deliver ROI and unlock entirely new experiences. 

For this conversation, the key takeaway is that AI implementation is moving from theoretical to practical, with clear winners emerging based on their ability to drive real business value rather than just run experiments.

-The AI vendor landscape is shifting from a winner-take-all market to a more competitive space, with Anthropic emerging as a serious challenger to OpenAI. Companies are increasingly comfortable switching between different AI models based on specific needs and cost considerations.

-Three areas showed clear product-market fit in 2024:
• Enterprise ChatGPT implementations
• Customer support automation
• Code generation tools (with Google reportedly generating 50% of their code using AI tools)

- Many companies are stuck in “POC Purgatory” - running small AI proof-of-concepts that never scale to production. The successful companies are those making real commitments and showing patience through initial iterations.

- The biggest barriers to AI adoption aren’t technical - they’re cultural and organizational. Senior engineers and executives often resist AI tools while junior staff embrace them. Success requires leadership commitment and openness to changing how work gets done.

- Private equity firms are emerging as surprising AI innovators, focusing on implementing AI in their portfolio companies to drive value. This is shifting PE’s reputation from financial engineering to technological transformation.

- “Agents” are becoming the dominant theme for 2025, with companies seeking to automate entire workflows rather than just individual tasks. There’s growing demand for “factories of agents” that can scale automation across organizations.

- The traditional lines between software and services companies are blurring. Service-heavy companies like Palantir are being valued more like software companies as they demonstrate scalable AI implementation approaches.

- Marketing automation is emerging as the next major AI opportunity, with companies seeking to both reduce costs and improve ROI through automated content creation and campaign optimization.

- Companies that don’t move beyond experimentation risk falling permanently behind, as AI is compressing innovation cycles and creating growing gaps between leaders and laggards.

This was a wild ride of a conversation with someone who’s in the trenches with a wide range of enterprise customers. Her perspective and insights are invaluable. I hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording it. 

And if you are looking to get started with or level up AI within your company, don’t hesitate to reach out directly to Jackie at [email protected]. 600+ of the best AI engineers on the planet are standing by...

[Fabricated Knowledge (LETS GO KNICKS!!) @fabknowledge]

I love this shit. Last month we were talking about scaling laws and the models not improving enough, and therefor the ROI was going to be broken and less GPUs

This month deepseek MLA/COT RL/FP8 and now the models are too good, which means less GPUs needed

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

Interesting connection between generations and technology
📺 #Boomers + Broadcast Media
🖥️ #GenX + Personal Computers
🌐 #Millennials + The Internet
🫂 #GenZ + Social Media & Sharing Economy
✨ #GenAlpha + #AI

Each one evolving how we share and consume information.

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

The #TribeVibe is strong heading into 2025

[Jaclyn Rice Nelson @jacsrice]

2024 was another record breaking year for @tribe_ai and we’re even more excited about the year ahead... reflections and what's next for Tribe 👇
https://t.co/5fIwAnMoXl

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

@StephenCurry30 just buried the French in the final two minutes of #MensBasketball final. Unstoppable.

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

Love that the best dancer in the world is a guy named “Phil” from Canada.
…But srsly #PhilWizard was amazing

[Vanessa Pacheco @VanessaOnTV]

Paris 2024 Olympics: Breakdancing
16 B-boys battled it out for the Olympic gold today.

Here's who topped the podium:
Gold: Phil Wizard (Canada)
Silver: Dany Dann (France)
Bronze: Victor (USA)
4th place: Shigekix (Japan)

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

Breakdancing is my new favorite Olympic sport

[🍉 Greta Thunberg’s Frog Hat 🐸 🍉 @yngdggrdckxo]

All y’all talking about durag Nicka need to tap in rn the #Gold medal match is about to start and she’s in the final, what else does she have in store?!

#BreakingForGold #JPNvsLTU #Olympics #OlympicGames #Paris2024 #Nicka 🇱🇹 #Ami 🇯🇵

[Gokul Rajaram @gokulr]

AI EMPLOYEES

CEOs and Board Members: if your company’’s core product is “software for [function]”, where function = one of Eng, sales, marketing, HR, legal, product, finance, ops, etc, or something more specific such as compliance or revenue ops or customer support or call center or FP&A) but your near- to mid-term roadmap doesn’t include “AI-powered [functional employee]”, you better have a damn good reason why. And it better be a board-level topic every quarter.

I promise you there are likely 10+ startups building some version of the latter. Yes, while their current product is likely crappy and maybe even laughable, extrapolating the improvement in their capabilities (and cost per unit capability) over the next 5-10 years should have you seriously worried, in an existential sort of way.

It’s a delicate balance since you’re ultimately disrupting the function you’re serving today. But the alternative is becoming the frog in the boiling water, ultimately leading to (irrelevance, obsolescence, and) death.

Ideally, your product improvements compound and stack up on top of each other, and together with better training data, which you already have access to thanks to your current product, show a clear path to creating the best AI-enabled functional employee.

You have a strong right to win. Ensure you don’t squander it. Be proactive and show agency.

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

Keeping my phone out of the bedroom and reading a book before bed has had a profound impact on my overall health. Not just going to bed but also getting a focused jump on my morning routine.

[Bryan Johnson @bryan_johnson]

Improve your sleep, read a book before bed.

An online randomized clinical trial on 991 subjects concluded that reading a book before bed improved sleep quality in a majority of participants, as self-reported by the participants using SQS scoring.

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

I've had a great experience working with @tribe_ai. A lot of companies are talking about #AI but very few people with actual experience. Great interview with @jacsrice and @bryce about the challenges to getting real solutions adopted and in the market.

[Bryce Roberts @bryce]

More on our investment in https://t.co/WiKnT19vMC https://t.co/cs8v2xlrWZ

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

"Open in new tab" - the best/worst feature on the internet... If you don't have more than 12 tabs open, are you even working?

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

I follow the strategy of all major tech companies, particularly when it comes to AI. Check out this blogpost with my thoughts on the future for businesses and individuals https://t.co/72f73CeDWQ

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

It’s been a while since a song came out that I just want to listen to over and over and share with everyone I know (even my nieces and nephews).

https://t.co/XRZqeSDle5

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

This is what we’ve seen to date. Your phone has more contextual awareness that makes it easier for you to find information. When companies try to replace humans with AI at scale, they have failed (think about all the robocalls you get now and bad customer service experiences)

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

What’s holding agent use cases back for large AI models is the data on how someone arrived at the decision to take an action. The internet is entirely output data from those actions. I believe the immediate future will be continuing to accelerate the time to action for humans.

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

I think I'm at the point where I need to clear and reset everything... #MarieKondo style take out all the bulbs, devices, surge protectors, etc. put them in one big pile and then start with the commands that bring me the most joy 😁

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

Anyone else out there feel like they have massive tech debt in their #smarthome setup? Curious what is the best way to stay on top this? Would love to hear some examples of how it's gone wrong for people... as well as adivce to stay on top of it.

[Walt Rumpf @Wal_Fresh]

For a while, I couldn't get my kitchen speaker group to play but I could get my bedroom+kitchen from Spotify. I turned on a silly chicken song for my daughter one morning while my wife was in the shower. She thought a bird had flown into our house somehow.