About this channel
Product work is changing, and Lenny's Podcast concentrates on what that change asks of the people doing it. Interviews and panel discussions explore product leadership, the expanding scope of…
Product work is changing, and Lenny's Podcast concentrates on what that change asks of the people doing it. Interviews and panel discussions explore product leadership, the expanding scope of professional roles and the effects of AI on how software is built. The selection includes conversations with product leaders named alongside companies such as Anthropic, Atlassian and Google Search, grounding the discussion in specific organisational perspectives.
One recurring question is what remains a human responsibility when software becomes easier to produce. A panel considers whether Claude can take on a product manager's role, while a conversation with Karri Saarinen puts context at the centre of product leadership. Other episodes question whether shipping more should still count as ambition and examine the decisions people should retain rather than hand over to AI. This is material for viewers thinking about the substance of product work, beyond the volume of output.
Planning and career expectations receive attention too. Tara Sesha and Nan Yu discuss a short planning horizon at OpenAI, and Tamar Yehoshua considers how roles are expanding. These subjects sit beside reflections on grief, burnout and opportunity during the AI transition, acknowledging that changes in tools can also change how work feels.
Product managers, founders and team leaders can use the conversations to compare approaches to responsibility, pace and professional growth. The mix of organisational discussion and personal adjustment gives the channel a particular focus: understanding what it takes to make useful product decisions when familiar ways of working are being reconsidered.
Latest episode
OpenAI’s Head of ChatGPT: We’re entering a new era of AI (again) | Tibo Sottiaux
Tibo Sottiaux leads ChatGPT and Codex at OpenAI. Under his stewardship, OpenAI has shipped some of its most consequential consumer launches: Codex, ChatGPT Work, and most recently, the new Dots…
Tibo Sottiaux leads ChatGPT and Codex at OpenAI. Under his stewardship, OpenAI has shipped some of its most consequential consumer launches: Codex, ChatGPT Work, and most recently, the new Dots personal agent platform. He joined me at DevDay, hours after his team launched more than 20 new products, to talk about where things are heading.
*We discuss:*
1. Dots, OpenAI’s new personal AI assistant
2. Why most actions on the internet will soon be taken by agents
3. Why loops, graphs, and fine-tuning agent workflows are a passing phase
4. Which skills are trending up and down in the AI era
5. How Tibo’s Dot warned him about a production outage five minutes before the launch
6. OpenAI’s approach to AI safety
*Brought to you by:*
WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more: https://workos.com/lenny
DX—Engineering intelligence for the AI era: https://getdx.com/?utm_source=lenny&utm_medium=sponsorship&utm_campaign=q42026
*Episode transcript:* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/openais-head-of-chatgpt-were-entering
*Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts:* https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0
*Highlights:* https://lennyspodcast.com/mostreplayedmoments
*Where to find Tibo Sottiaux:*
• X: https://x.com/thsottiaux
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thibault-sottiaux-27195366
*Where to find Lenny:*
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
*In this episode, we cover:*
(00:00) Introduction to Tibo Sottiaux
(01:12) How Tibo uses AI in his daily work
(03:10) The vision for always-on AI agents
(06:15) How AI will continue to change work
(07:32) Bringing Codex, ChatGPT, and Dots together
(08:20) The sci-fi inspiration behind the technology
(09:02) Building AI with the community
(10:13) Understanding the Dots structure
(11:34) OpenAI’s open ecosystem and plugin revenue sharing
(13:39) How plugins get discovered and recommended
(14:39) The research behind Dots
(16:20) Where humans will remain valuable
(17:25) Agent fatigue, loneliness, and context switching
(18:55) The pressure to do more with AI
(20:09) An agent that spotted a production outage before a live demo
(21:42) Agent guardrails and connecting multiple devices
(23:25) The skills becoming more valuable in the AI era
(25:56) Advice for people early in their careers
(27:18) How teams build and ship inside OpenAI
(28:59) Autonomy, trust, and learning from mistakes
(30:45) Building for a future where agents dominate internet activity
(32:41) What Tibo has changed his mind about
(33:55) OpenAI’s approach to AI safety and alignment
(36:15) Moving beyond model pickers toward simpler AI
*Referenced:*
• OpenAI Dots: https://chatgpt.com/features/dots
• Her on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/70278933
• Star Trek: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060028
• Pi: https://pi.ai
• OpenCode: https://opencode.ai
• Notion: https://www.notion.com
• Figma: https://www.figma.com
• OpenClaw: https://openclaw.ai
• Peter Steinberger on X: https://x.com/steipete
• Grok Bot: https://x.ai/bot
• Muse: https://muse.ai
• Instinct: https://instinct.com
• Ahmed Ibrahim on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ahmedibrhm
• The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead: https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead
*Recommended book:*
• Neuromancer: https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441007465
_Production and marketing by https://penname.co/._
_For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com._
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
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