CULTURE

AI's real question isn't whether AGI arrives

Ahmad Al-Dahle has been at the center of some of the biggest technology and societal shifts of the past two decades. He helped develop the early iPhone at Apple, spearheaded the open-source Llama models at Meta to help decentralize AI power and influence, and now serves as CTO of Airbnb, where he's using AI to help people spend more time in the real world.

In this episode of The Deep View Conversations, we sat down with Ahmad to discuss Airbnb's vision for AI, why he believes AGI is coming, how AI agents are revolutionizing executive workflows, and why technology should ultimately help people spend less time with technology and more time having human experiences.

Topics covered include:

• Why Ahmad left Apple after over 15 years

• How Airbnb is using AI to reimagine travel and drive more meaningful connections

• The future of open-source AI and the impact of Llama

• Why Ahmad believes AGI is inevitable and what comes next

• How AI agents are transforming leadership and productivity

• Lessons from working with Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Brian Chesky

If you're a leader, AI builder, entrepreneur, investor, or anyone trying to understand where AI is headed beyond the hype, you don't want to miss this episode. Ahmad's insights on AGI, open models, AI agents, and the future of human connection make this one of the most thoughtful discussions we've had on the show.

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TOGETHER WITH CODER

The Next Big Test Facing AI Coding Agents

By now, we all know the standard watch-outs when it comes to AI agents. Reliability, security, privacy, and the like are all real concerns for any company… but for those of us working in regulated industries (think financial services or government), these “watch outs” can quickly become massive issues – and that’s no good. 

Coder recognizes the scale of this problem, which is why they commissioned this new report from Weave Intelligence to help us address it. Inside, you’ll find a complete breakdown of the requirements for AI coding agents in regulated industries, a practical framework for deploying these agents at scale while still maintaining security and compliance, and how to do it all while avoiding those dreaded operational bottlenecks. 

Download the whole report for free right here. Thanks, Coder!

GOVERNANCE

Trust and simplicity are the real AI battlefields

AI firms want to remove two of the biggest barriers standing in the way of enterprise adoption: trust and convenience.

In San Francisco last week, enterprise tech giants Microsoft and Snowflake both debuted tools aimed at making it easier for companies to adopt and deploy AI, without tedious onboarding processes or concerns about data security. 

It signals that the winning enterprise AI strategy may not come from the models themselves, but rather the scaffolding that lets enterprises use them. 

• Trust: Snowflake introduced the Horizon Catalog, which serves as a foundational layer for trust and data governance in Snowflake, providing agents with auditable identities, continuous monitoring of their security posture, and a new feature called Horizon Context, which ensures that every agent and person is operating from the same business context. Microsoft, meanwhile, unveiled both Agent Control Specification, an open-source standard that applies controls within the agent loop, and Project MDASH, which uses agents to hunt down exploitable bugs. 

• Simplicity: Microsoft debuted Microsoft Scout, a personal work agent that proactively handles tasks and integrates with tools users commonly use, like Teams and Outlook. Snowflake dropped several updates to Snowflake Cowork, its own work agent, including Cortex Sense to unify data and context, User Memory to learn user behavior to automatically handle tasks, and Skills to create and share ways to automate workflows.  

These companies are seeking to make it as easy as possible to bring agents into the workforce by handling the most difficult barriers to adoption. Without a foundation of security, cautious enterprises won't feel they can trust the technology, and enterprises that want to move quickly may face a variety of risks if they trust agents unwittingly. 

"We can't, as an industry, underestimate how much investment is needed to get the trust story right for this technology," Sarah Bird, chief product officer of responsible AI at Microsoft, told The Deep View. 

However, because the initial guinea pigs for this tech in enterprises were software developers, who are more technically inclined, that may have instilled false confidence in enterprises that deploying AI is easy. If these systems are cumbersome to set up and deploy for tech novices, they may not get as much uptake as they did with coding. 

"We want the knowledge worker or the business user not to worry about any of the technology, but behind the scenes, to make sure that they have the right MCP connections, they have the right skills, they have the right guardrails," Bala Kasiviswanathan, VP of developer and AI experiences at Snowflake, told The Deep View. "When you make all that happen magically for them, then they will use it more, and they'll trust it more."

These product announcements signal that Microsoft and Snowflake want to meet enterprises where they're at with AI, without sacrificing safety. The fact that major firms recognize this need signals that success in the AI industry may not come from simply training the bigger, better and more powerful model, but rather from selling the tools to leverage them without the headache. In that sense, Microsoft and Snowflake are essentially selling picks and shovels in the AI gold rush. Still, a lot rides on getting it right. This trillion-dollar industry is built entirely on the promise that everyone – enterprises and consumers alike – will eventually adopt this technology. If it's not safe and easy to use, that promise will be delayed or go unfulfilled. 

TOGETHER WITH CODER

Self-Hosted Coding Agents. No Model Lock-In.

Coder Agents is a new way to run AI workflows, for teams that need visibility and control over where source code lives and where agents execute. It runs on self-hosted infrastructure, so platform teams get centralized governance and auditability without relying on hosted SaaS agent platforms.

Developers can delegate coding tasks, debugging, and research to persistent agents that continue running remotely across devices and sessions, even after the laptop closes. Coder Agents also supports any LLM provider, making it easy to switch between Claude, GPT, Gemini, or open-weight models without rebuilding workflows.

Get started with Coder Agents today and run AI workflows on infrastructure you control.

CONSUMER

How AI took over 40% of the top apps on iPhone

Apple's developer ecosystem has long been a powerhouse, but the numbers behind it keep climbing. 

On Thursday, the company announced that its App Store facilitated over $1.4 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2025, with a new force shaping this year's results: AI. According to Apple's statement, more than 40 of the top 100 apps on the App Store featured consumer-facing AI capabilities. 

Even more notable is that those apps saw four times as much growth in billings as the other top 100 apps, highlighting people's willingness to spend on what emerging technology can do for them. 

This means that developers willing to capitalize on the AI moment by integrating AI into their applications have a significant opportunity to make money while also potentially offering more to users through thoughtful AI integrations. Additionally, while ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are currently dominating the iOS App Store charts, apps that include AI features but aren't explicitly AI-focused, such as photo editing, shopping, and health, are also reaping good results. 

"From health and fitness apps that deliver personalized recommendations using on-device intelligence, to photo and video editing apps with AI-powered creative features, and productivity tools that leverage powerful, cloud-based AI models to automate complex tasks — the integration of AI into everyday apps is creating new opportunities for developers," said Apple in the release. 

Beyond user-facing offerings, AI is also increasingly used behind the scenes by app developers. For instance, Xcode, the platform used to create apps for Apple's ecosystem of devices, offers a range of AI coding features, including agentic and vibe coding options.

The App Store remains a financially significant platform for developers. Apple said in the release that for more than 90 percent of billings and sales facilitated by the App Store ecosystem, developers paid no commission to the company. This encourages developers to continue building on the platform, even if it's easier to use a wider range of AI tools to build apps for the Google Play Store and other platforms.

It also helps that Apple has a loyal user base with no intention of leaving, making it a vital platform for developers to invest in. As a result, Apple has become a key platform for developers to invest their time and resources, allowing it to capitalize on the AI boom — even without its own frontier language models or a revamped Siri.

This is another instance of AI driving real-world spending and impacting people's habits. More advanced AI features are typically locked behind in-app purchases, and people are encouraged to spend that money because AI features are directly transactional. For instance, if you want to unlock a feature that gives you higher AI limits or that allows you to access an AI coach, as soon as you make the purchase, you will reap those rewards. Meanwhile, other types of in-app purchases, such as tokens for playing games, don't offer the same direct return on productivity or optimization, limiting developers' opportunities to make more money. However you frame it, AI is winning in the App Store.