AI-Native

A practical test is to take the model away and see what is left. An invoicing tool with an “AI summary” button still works without it; that is AI added on. A service whose core work is done by AI agents that draft, check and send the output, with people supervising, has nothing left to run. That is the AI-native end of the scale, and most real companies sit somewhere in between.

There is no standard definition. AI-native is mostly a positioning label, used by startups to set themselves apart from incumbents and by vendors to describe who they sell to. When someone uses it, ask what it actually changes: the product, how the team works, the cost structure, or only the marketing.

In episode 8 at 4:13, Weaviate CEO Bob van Luijt describes the company’s shift toward “the AI native builder”: “somebody who wants to build an AI app rather than just adding some AI features to it.”

In episode 35 at 6:09, GrowthX’s Marcel Santilli gives his own definition of an AI-native business. He names two principles: first-principles thinking, which breaks work down and rebuilds it differently, and delegation (6:33). He argues that building this way means “completely rethinking every function in the company,” recruiting included (7:22). That is his view from building GrowthX, not a measured comparison. The episode was sponsored by Galileo, which Conor also names among GrowthX’s customers at 1:29.