Dear subscribers,
Today, I want to share a new episode with Pedro, the co-founder and CEO of Brex.
Pedro is widely respected as one of the most AI-pilled CEOs. In our interview, he explained why most people are building agents wrong and how to build them as AI employees instead, each with a specific job, skill, manager, and budget. He also gave a live demo of how he still uses OpenClaw to stay on top of his $5B business and life.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Build AI employees, not AI agents
(05:23) Why Pedro spends half his time reviewing work
(12:32) Live demo: Jim, Brex’s AI recruiting employee
(21:24) Why Brex makes engineers build with AI in interviews
(22:33) CrabTrap: How to stop AI employees from leaking data
(27:30) The tokenmaxxing bill is coming. Here’s how to control it
(40:45) Live demo: Pedro’s OpenClaw system runs his life
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Top takeaways I learned from this episode
Build AI employees, not AI agents
Build an AI agent like you’re onboarding an employee. Give your agents the same operating constraints as a good employee:
Job: Own one clear outcome.
Skills: Include specific instructions and constraints.
Manager: Escalate to the human manager if unclear.
Budget: Spend only tokens based on what the outcome is worth.
Jim (Brex’s AI recruiter) is an example of what an AI employee looks like. Jim’s job is to help recruiters find quality job candidates. His skills include sourcing candidates, filtering inbound applications, and running analytics for any job. He can access Greenhouse and LinkedIn and escalates to a human when he’s unsure.
