In this episode, host Rick Watson talks with:

Vikram Saxena, the Founder of BetterCommerce, a modular, composable B2B e-commerce platform designed for small to medium-sized businesses. Saxena has also worked at Vsworx Information Systems, HCL Technologies, and Axtrum Technologies (formerly BlueThread Solutions).

This episode can be seen as an example of a developer/practitioner using AI to experiment and then build solutions to challenges.

The initial use of ChatGPT to create analytics on product performance and spending and a small proof of concept with a customer.

Vikram discusses how Lovable helps software developers further peel the onion in terms of next steps and the outcome required in building software.

How BetterCommerce stopped using several SaaS solutions for their software development business and replaced them with a custom-built solution, SPDM.

Their AI system categorizes customer feedback into bugs, change requests, or new ideas, researches the value and industry applicability of these ideas, and assists in building internal business cases for product development.

Moving from siloed data found in email, tickets, and customer feedback across multiple solutions to consolidating it all in a single place, enabling greater efficiency.

Their testing of AI use inside their go-to-market strategy, and Vikram's skepticism about using AI in business development and sales. Understanding the gap between AI-adoption for sales and business development staff and moving it to AI-based platforms.

He stresses that AI should not replace the personal touch in sales emails and outreach, as unique personal communication is critical, and AI-generated mass emails often become noise.

He also discusses his enjoyment of experimenting with AI development and building software to optimize cloud costs and subscriptions, which he finds increasingly expensive and difficult to control.