PredictionArticle
We are like 5 percent into this new technical revolution. Transcription is merely the word processor of this era. Spreadsheets haven't come out yet. The GUI hasn't come out yet
Pedregal argues that the AI industry is extremely early in its development, that transcription and meeting notes are the first primitive application (like word processors after the PC), and that the real prize is how AI will transform how people work every day. ✦ AI generated
Chris Pedregal · Platformer · 2026-07-30 · original ↗
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“Granola was a classic case, in my view, of someone having a really good idea and the entire industry racing as fast as it could to copy it. So what do you tell your venture capitalists to convince them that you can build a moat here and make something really durable around this kind of core product?”
I'm always afraid this will sound like bullshit to people who don't know me, but basically, I think we are like 5 percent into this new technical revolution. It's like the personal computer just dropped, and no one really knows what to do with it, and the only thing you can do right now is word processing — which is powerful. But spreadsheets haven't come out yet. The GUI hasn't come out yet. I feel like we're in that moment in history, and transcription and meeting notes feel like the first little thing that's useful. And the future — what's ahead of us — is the prize: how can these new tools actually change the way you work, and make you do better work, faster, smarter? Augment you to do more than you can do today. Every big company is also chasing after that, so it's going to be super competitive. We just happened — I think through luck — to stumble upon transcription as one of the most valuable data sources for that future, and that's why everyone's going after it. The short answer is: if all we were going to be is a transcription and meeting-notes company, then I'd be really worried. But to me, the battle is much bigger, and it's ahead of us. So I'm worried about that future world, not today's existing world.
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