Prompt engineering

Oct 01, 2026

The Caveman Prompting Challenge

James Barney, Head of Forward Labs at MetLife, discusses the operational challenges and strategic considerations for AI enablement in a large enterprise. Key topics include FinOps approaches to model selection based on cost, speed, and accuracy, optimizing LLM token usage through 'caveman prompting' and the proposed 'CaveBench' benchmark, and navigating volatile model release pricing. The conversation delves into measuring AI's value beyond cost, differentiating R&D from production token spend, and establishing robust AI governance using policy as code. A significant shift from traditional UIs to chat-based interfaces is explored, alongside the critical 'latent shopper problem' – the challenge of serendipitous data discovery in an AI-driven, query-focused world.

Sep 22, 2026

100x More Reliable Voice Agents

SLNG.ai introduces Unmute, an open declarative standard for voice agents, addressing platform lock-in and the limitations of current agent architectures. It proposes a shift from LLM-centric, sequential pipelines to declared execution with structural guarantees, enabling portable, cost-effective, and robust voice agents by breaking down complex interactions into modular, context-aware steps. This approach minimizes token usage, enhances determinism, and improves agent reliability compared to traditional single-prompt designs.

Sep 14, 2026

How We Solved Agent Building — Andrew Qu, Vercel

Andrew Qu, Chief of Software at Vercel, details the year-long journey of building an internal data science agent, from its initial "awful" state to the release of Eve, a framework for agent development. He covers iterative architectural improvements, the critical "file system unlock" inspired by Claude Code, and the distillation of common queries into reusable "skills," culminating in a framework that simplifies the creation of specialized, company-specific AI agents.

Sep 11, 2026

Building ambitious software — Jonathan Kelley, Dioxus Labs & Cognition

Jonathan Kelley, founder of Dioxus Labs, shares insights from building a cross-platform Rust app framework for five years. He details Dioxus's evolution, its core technologies like Blitz and Subsecond, and the transformative impact of AI coding agents. Kelley explains how AI excels at handling Rust's complexity, automating mundane tasks, and serving as patient specialists for knowledge-intensive problems, yet falls short in writing effective tests. He concludes that while AI makes code cheap, quality remains paramount, shifting the engineer's focus to architecture and strategic system design.

Sep 07, 2026

Self-Improving Harnesses, Local Personal AI And YC's Agent For Work | YC Paper Club

A deep dive into the evolving world of LLM harnesses, demonstrating how they've transformed from simple prompt engineering into sophisticated self-improving systems. The discussion covers architectural advancements (e.g., Prime Agent's context as cache, Turing vs. Von Neumann), practical applications (auto-researchers, on-device personal AI like OpenJarvis, YC's QM for work), and the challenges and future directions of agentic AI. It emphasizes that harness innovation is key to unlocking significant performance gains and enabling LLMs to operate autonomously and adaptively.

Aug 29, 2026

Agentic Sites: Building Hyper Personalized Websites — Carlos Sanchez, Adobe

Carlos Sanchez from Adobe presents "Agility Sites," a novel approach to building hyper-personalized websites in real-time. By dynamically generating specific content blocks and grounding responses in the site's corpus, these sites achieve an "audience of one" experience. Key innovations include rapid LLM inference (1.1s average latency with Cerebras), continuous model evaluation for speed and accuracy, and leveraging user intent to deliver tailored content, as demonstrated by an on-the-fly camping coffee machine page and an AI conference comparison site.