Skip to content

Laurie Voss

Arize

  • 1 episode on Chain of Thought
  • 2 topics covered
  • 1 full transcript
  • Sep 2026 first on the show
Laurie Voss

Laurie Voss is head of developer relations at Arize and co-founded npm. On Chain of Thought he argued that as agents write more code, engineers need to understand user needs and decide what to build.

Cover art for AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize

Latest episode with Laurie Voss · EP 74

AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize

Laurie Voss, Arize ·

Show notes & transcript → All listening options →

Episodes

What the conversations cover

These notes summarize the episodes featuring Laurie Voss, including other speakers in panel conversations. Follow a source link to read the discussion in context.

EP 74 AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize

  • Laurie Voss, an npm co-founder and head of developer relations at Arize, says the job is shifting from how to build to what to build. Product sense, which used to set senior developers apart, “is becoming absolutely central to the job.” He compares the coming role to the 1960s systems analyst, who translated business requirements into software requirements without writing any software: “That job is coming back, and we’re going to call it a product engineer,” someone who works with a team of agents even without writing code themselves. Episode takeaways
  • Voss says the best AI code-review tools he has seen have about an 80% hit rate, which is “really good, but it’s not enough to put stuff out into production,” so AI-assisted senior review of the last 20% still matters. Agents are weaker still at operations (deploying code, choosing and connecting hardware), refactoring, architecture and scaling, work that depends on tacit information nobody has written down. He expects agents to stay bad at tacit information for the next five years. Episode takeaways
  • Voss says nobody has a great answer yet for people starting out, but he would steer away from code-focused training. Reversing a linked list in Java “is not a thing anyone’s ever going to need to do ever again,” and he’s no longer sure he would advise spending 15 grand on a bootcamp. He would pick a deliberately theoretical computer science course (complexity, big O notation, proving software correct) or one that blends in humanities such as the philosophy of computation and the business of software. Episode takeaways

Positions and best quotes

What Laurie Voss argued on the show, as verbatim transcript excerpts. Each one links to the moment it was said.

EP 74 AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize

  • Where we are in the AI cycle if you consider 2023 to be when everything really kicked off for AI, you know, late 2022 maybe, then we're in 1997 right now, and even though it feels like everything has changed, we are just getting started. Transcript at 15:59
    Cite this quote from Laurie Voss

    Link

    “…if you consider 2023 to be when everything really kicked off for AI, you know, late 2022 maybe, then we're in 1997 right now, and even though it feels like everything has changed, we are just getting started.” — Laurie Voss, “AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize,” Chain of Thought, hosted by Conor Bronsdon, September 22, 2026, at 15:59. https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-9a96500885

    APA

    Bronsdon, C. (Host). (2026, September 22). AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize (No. 74) [Audio podcast episode]. In Chain of Thought. https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-9a96500885

    Laurie Voss said, “…if you consider 2023 to be when everything really kicked off for AI, you know, late 2022 maybe, then we're in 1997 right now, and even though it feels like everything has changed, we are just getting started” (Bronsdon, 2026, 15:59).

    Title as published; APA uses sentence case for episode titles.

    BibTeX

    @misc{chainofthought-74-9a96500885,
  author       = {Bronsdon, Conor},
  title        = {{AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize}},
  howpublished = {Podcast episode, \emph{Chain of Thought}, episode 74},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = sep,
  date         = {2026-09-22},
  url          = {https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-9a96500885},
  note         = {Quote by Laurie Voss at 15:59: ``…if you consider 2023 to be when everything really kicked off for AI, you know, late 2022 maybe, then we're in 1997 right now, and even though it feels like everything has changed, we are just getting started.''},
}

    Quote card

    Open the quote card image (1200×630). Embed it with a link back to this quote:

    <a href="https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-9a96500885"><img src="https://chainofthought.show/og/claims/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/claim-9a96500885.jpeg" width="1200" height="630" alt="Laurie Voss on Chain of Thought: “…if you consider 2023 to be when everything really kicked off for AI, you know, late 2022 maybe, then we're in 1997 right now, and even though it feels like everything has changed, we are just getting started.”" loading="lazy"></a>

  • Open source as the early warning And they felt that a solid six months before every other company was like, we've started generating code so fast that we don't know how to review it. Transcript at 27:06
    Cite this quote from Laurie Voss

    Link

    “And they felt that a solid six months before every other company was like, we've started generating code so fast that we don't know how to review it.” — Laurie Voss, “AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize,” Chain of Thought, hosted by Conor Bronsdon, September 22, 2026, at 27:06. https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-31da2c45f1

    APA

    Bronsdon, C. (Host). (2026, September 22). AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize (No. 74) [Audio podcast episode]. In Chain of Thought. https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-31da2c45f1

    Laurie Voss said, “And they felt that a solid six months before every other company was like, we've started generating code so fast that we don't know how to review it” (Bronsdon, 2026, 27:06).

    Title as published; APA uses sentence case for episode titles.

    BibTeX

    @misc{chainofthought-74-31da2c45f1,
  author       = {Bronsdon, Conor},
  title        = {{AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize}},
  howpublished = {Podcast episode, \emph{Chain of Thought}, episode 74},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = sep,
  date         = {2026-09-22},
  url          = {https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-31da2c45f1},
  note         = {Quote by Laurie Voss at 27:06: ``And they felt that a solid six months before every other company was like, we've started generating code so fast that we don't know how to review it.''},
}

    Quote card

    Open the quote card image (1200×630). Embed it with a link back to this quote:

    <a href="https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-31da2c45f1"><img src="https://chainofthought.show/og/claims/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/claim-31da2c45f1.jpeg" width="1200" height="630" alt="Laurie Voss on Chain of Thought: “And they felt that a solid six months before every other company was like, we've started generating code so fast that we don't know how to review it.”" loading="lazy"></a>

  • Open models versus frontier labs The models from the Chinese labs are, you know, they cost a tenth or a hundredth of what the Frontier labs are charging, and they do 90%, 95% as much. Transcript at 39:03
    Cite this quote from Laurie Voss

    Link

    “The models from the Chinese labs are, you know, they cost a tenth or a hundredth of what the Frontier labs are charging, and they do 90%, 95% as much.” — Laurie Voss, “AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize,” Chain of Thought, hosted by Conor Bronsdon, September 22, 2026, at 39:03. https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-94e28aba64

    APA

    Bronsdon, C. (Host). (2026, September 22). AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize (No. 74) [Audio podcast episode]. In Chain of Thought. https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-94e28aba64

    Laurie Voss said, “The models from the Chinese labs are, you know, they cost a tenth or a hundredth of what the Frontier labs are charging, and they do 90%, 95% as much” (Bronsdon, 2026, 39:03).

    Title as published; APA uses sentence case for episode titles.

    BibTeX

    @misc{chainofthought-74-94e28aba64,
  author       = {Bronsdon, Conor},
  title        = {{AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize}},
  howpublished = {Podcast episode, \emph{Chain of Thought}, episode 74},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = sep,
  date         = {2026-09-22},
  url          = {https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-94e28aba64},
  note         = {Quote by Laurie Voss at 39:03: ``The models from the Chinese labs are, you know, they cost a tenth or a hundredth of what the Frontier labs are charging, and they do 90\%, 95\% as much.''},
}

    Quote card

    Open the quote card image (1200×630). Embed it with a link back to this quote:

    <a href="https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-94e28aba64"><img src="https://chainofthought.show/og/claims/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/claim-94e28aba64.jpeg" width="1200" height="630" alt="Laurie Voss on Chain of Thought: “The models from the Chinese labs are, you know, they cost a tenth or a hundredth of what the Frontier labs are charging, and they do 90%, 95% as much.”" loading="lazy"></a>

  • I was just talking yesterday to a very good friend of mine who's been in software development about as long as I have, which is a pretty long time. And he's one of those crafts people. And his solution to the change was he's going to retire. Transcript at 3:06

Quotes are verbatim, with ellipses marking omitted words. Automatically selected quotes may have filler words removed.

In their words

I would say the best code review AI tools that I've seen have like an 80% hit rate. And an 80% hit rate is really good, but it's not enough to put stuff out into production, right?

Laurie Voss AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize · 5:59
Cite this quote from Laurie Voss

Link

“I would say the best code review AI tools that I've seen have like an 80% hit rate. And an 80% hit rate is really good, but it's not enough to put stuff out into production, right?” — Laurie Voss, “AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize,” Chain of Thought, hosted by Conor Bronsdon, September 22, 2026, at 5:59. https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-d4077e373d

APA

Bronsdon, C. (Host). (2026, September 22). AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize (No. 74) [Audio podcast episode]. In Chain of Thought. https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-d4077e373d

Laurie Voss said, “I would say the best code review AI tools that I've seen have like an 80% hit rate. And an 80% hit rate is really good, but it's not enough to put stuff out into production, right?” (Bronsdon, 2026, 5:59).

Title as published; APA uses sentence case for episode titles.

BibTeX

@misc{chainofthought-74-d4077e373d,
  author       = {Bronsdon, Conor},
  title        = {{AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize}},
  howpublished = {Podcast episode, \emph{Chain of Thought}, episode 74},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = sep,
  date         = {2026-09-22},
  url          = {https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-d4077e373d},
  note         = {Quote by Laurie Voss at 5:59: ``I would say the best code review AI tools that I've seen have like an 80\% hit rate. And an 80\% hit rate is really good, but it's not enough to put stuff out into production, right?''},
}

Quote card

Open the quote card image (1200×630). Embed it with a link back to this quote:

<a href="https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-d4077e373d"><img src="https://chainofthought.show/og/claims/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/claim-d4077e373d.jpeg" width="1200" height="630" alt="Laurie Voss on Chain of Thought: “I would say the best code review AI tools that I've seen have like an 80% hit rate. And an 80% hit rate is really good, but it's not enough to put stuff out into production, right?”" loading="lazy"></a>

It used to be called a systems analyst in like the 60s. That was their job, was translating business requirements into software requirements without writing any software. And that job is coming back, and we're going to call it a product engineer.

Laurie Voss AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize · 32:32
Cite this quote from Laurie Voss

Link

“It used to be called a systems analyst in like the 60s. That was their job, was translating business requirements into software requirements without writing any software. And that job is coming back, and we're going to call it a product engineer.” — Laurie Voss, “AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize,” Chain of Thought, hosted by Conor Bronsdon, September 22, 2026, at 32:32. https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-ea815a1357

APA

Bronsdon, C. (Host). (2026, September 22). AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize (No. 74) [Audio podcast episode]. In Chain of Thought. https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-ea815a1357

Laurie Voss said, “It used to be called a systems analyst in like the 60s. That was their job, was translating business requirements into software requirements without writing any software. And that job is coming back, and we're going to call it a product engineer” (Bronsdon, 2026, 32:32).

Title as published; APA uses sentence case for episode titles.

BibTeX

@misc{chainofthought-74-ea815a1357,
  author       = {Bronsdon, Conor},
  title        = {{AI Codes: Product Engineers Decide What to Build | Laurie Voss, Arize}},
  howpublished = {Podcast episode, \emph{Chain of Thought}, episode 74},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = sep,
  date         = {2026-09-22},
  url          = {https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-ea815a1357},
  note         = {Quote by Laurie Voss at 32:32: ``It used to be called a systems analyst in like the 60s. That was their job, was translating business requirements into software requirements without writing any software. And that job is coming back, and we're going to call it a product engineer.''},
}

Quote card

Open the quote card image (1200×630). Embed it with a link back to this quote:

<a href="https://chainofthought.show/podcast/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/#claim-ea815a1357"><img src="https://chainofthought.show/og/claims/74-ai-codes-product-engineers-decide-what-to-build-laurie-voss/claim-ea815a1357.jpeg" width="1200" height="630" alt="Laurie Voss on Chain of Thought: “It used to be called a systems analyst in like the 60s. That was their job, was translating business requirements into software requirements without writing any software. And that job is coming back, and we're going to call it a product engineer.”" loading="lazy"></a>

Transcript excerpts; ellipses mark omitted words. Some automatically selected quotes have filler words removed.

Essays featuring Laurie Voss