20250705 – AI’s Transformative Wave: Insights from Finance to Fashion
Explore the diverse impact of AI across industries, from CFOs innovating pricing and forecasting models, skepticism around AGI timelines, and evolving AI tech affecting competitive landscapes, to AI’s role in fashion search optimization and entrepreneurship. Uncover strategic shifts, technological hurdles, and unique opportunities AI presents for business growth and adaptation, urging deeper exploration.
1. CFO roundtable: AI growth, pricing, and forecasting (June 2025 Fintech Newsletter)
The June 2025 Fintech newsletter discusses how CFOs are adapting to AI’s impact on finance, focusing on new pricing models, revenue recognition, and cost management. It highlights the shift from subscription to outcome-based pricing, the need for hybrid metrics to capture true customer consumption, and the challenges of managing variable costs associated with AI models. Additionally, the newsletter emphasizes the importance of investing in AI for long-term growth and the complexities of financial forecasting in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Read more: https://a16z.com/newsletter/june-2025-fintech-newsletter/
2. Why I don’t think AGI is right around the corner
In a podcast episode, the speaker discusses their views on the timeline for achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), expressing skepticism about its imminence due to current limitations in AI models, particularly in continuous learning. They predict that solving these limitations will lead to significant breakthroughs but expect a flawed version of continual learning to emerge first. Despite doubts about near-term advancements, the speaker acknowledges rapid AI progress and suggests tentative timelines for AI achieving human-level competence in tasks like tax preparation by 2028 and seamless learning by 2032.
Read more: https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/why-i-dont-think-agi-is-right-around
3. DeepSeek Debrief: >128 Days Later
DeepSeek R1, a Chinese AI model, initially gained significant market share due to its low pricing, but its popularity has waned as other AI models have improved and offered better user experiences. Despite DeepSeek’s competitive pricing, its high latency and limited context window have driven users to alternative providers that offer faster response times and larger context capabilities. The focus on tokenomics, including latency, throughput, and context window, highlights the trade-offs DeepSeek makes to keep costs low, impacting its market position and user satisfaction.
Read more: https://semianalysis.com/2025/07/03/deepseek-debrief-128-days-later/
4. Julie Bornstein: Building the Future of Fashion with AI
In this episode of Generative Now, Michael Mignano interviews Julie Bornstein about her new AI-powered fashion search engine, Daydream, which aims to enhance fashion discovery through natural language queries. Julie shares insights from her experiences at Nordstrom, Sephora, Stitch Fix, and The Yes, highlighting how these roles influenced Daydream’s development and its focus on personalized shopping experiences. The discussion also covers the impact of the pandemic on The Yes, its integration into Pinterest, and the challenges and opportunities presented by large language models and trends like TikTok shop.
Read more: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/generativenow/episodes/Julie-Bornstein-Building-the-Future-of-Fashion-with-AI-e35011g
5. I’ve run 75+ businesses. Here’s why you’re probably chasing the wrong idea. | Andrew Wilkinson (co‑founder of Tiny)
Andrew Wilkinson, co-founder of Tiny, has built a portfolio of over three dozen profitable brands without venture capital, focusing on high-margin niches and leveraging AI for productivity. He emphasizes the importance of finding opportunities in overlooked industries, understanding the impact of ADHD on entrepreneurship, and the potential of AI to automate knowledge work. Despite achieving significant financial success, Wilkinson highlights that true clarity and reduced anxiety came through medication rather than wealth, and he advises hiring based on existing skills rather than potential.
Read more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/ive-run-75-businesses-andrew-wilkinson
That’s all for today’s Curated AI-Native Blogs and Podcasts. Join us at AI Native Foundation Membership Dashboard for the latest insights on AI Native, or follow our linkedin account at AI Native Foundation and our twitter account at AINativeF.