Vercel's Playbook for AI Agents: From Vibe Check to Production | Malte Ubl

on agent in particular this framing that I have where it's a new kind of software but not software that's like weird but software that we always wanted to write where I'm coming from is that there is a type of software that automates something that we do on a daily basis where there's a little bit of of flexibility that's needed where that's actually quite difficult to model in in software where like traditionally because you would have written these like if this then that type of blocks it's just difficult to make that exhaustive but agents do really well on that same software So suddenly it's

super easy to ride. [Music] Welcome back to Chain of Thought everyone. I am your host Connor Bronden and today I'm joined by Malta Ubel, CTO at Verscell. Malta, it is great to see you again. Great to be here. Super awesome. Yeah, it's it's been a lot of fun chatting with you over I guess the last year. It was the last time we had a chance to sit down and kind of dive deep on everything happening with AI. So, it's been fun to watch a couple of your talks as you've continued to be a

prominent voice in the AI space. Uh, often striking a balance between excitement and pragmatism and the ability to be actionable, which I think is something Verscell does a really good job of. And you've even described yourself as an anti-hype guy at times, something which was on full display at your recent Versel Ship 2025 talk. And you had some fantastic takeaways there. In particular, you talked about the FOMO that people are feeling right now. And as someone who talks to leaders like yourself every week who are all doing exciting things in AI, I feel this FOMO

vehemently. Every week I'm going, "Oh god, here's a new thing that I haven't experimented enough with yet." And it's very common, I think, for folks who are building in the space to experience this. It's almost the default emotion of AI builders as perpetual FOMO because there's so much happening. There's so much hype. There's so many new and exciting things that are actually being achieved. And the space is moving faster than I think many of us have ever

experienced. You've posited that AI agents in particular are a new kind of software and a new paradigm uh that is something we've always wanted to create but couldn't for economic and you know energy and frankly reasoning reasons. Could you expand on how you see agents and AI more broadly shifting the paradigm of how technology is working today? Yeah, totally. And you know, I think like the way I qualify anti-hype guy is

that I'm actually I'm pretty hypy about this stuff, but I try to ground it in reality. Like I think there's always this moment in in when a new tech comes out that people kind of feel compelled like they feel the FOMO, but they don't really quite know what the thing is. and and so like you don't really know where to start, right? And what definitely is different in AI is is that there is value though like because I I you know it felt like almost the entire web 3

hype cycle was like just perpetually there but you never found like you know the the thing that actually would be the value was just never really discovered and and but this is so different right like it's it's you you can go try it out and then it actually happens to work. So, so we're coming from a different perspective and the the yeah the the on and on on agent in particular the this this framing that I have where it's a new kind of software but not software that's like weird but software that we always wanted to write where I'm coming from is that

there is a type of software that automates something that we do on a daily basis where there's a little bit of of flexibility that's needed where that's actually quite difficult to model in in software where like traditionally because you would have written these like if this then that type of blocks um it's just difficult to make that exhaustive but but agents do really well on that