The $700 Billion AI Productivity Problem No One's Talking About

Russ Fradin sold his first company for $300M. He’s back in the arena with Larridin, helping companies measure just how successful their AI actually is.In this episode, Russ sits down with a16z General Partner Alex Rampell to reveal why the measurement infrastructure that unlocked internet advertising's trillion-dollar boom is exactly what's missing from AI, why your most productive employees are hiding their AI usage from management, and the uncomfortable truth that companies desperately buying AI tools have no idea whether anyone's actually using them. The same playbook that built comScore into a billion-dollar measurement empire now determines which AI companies survive the coming shakeout.Timecodes: 0:00 — Introduction 2:15 — Early Career, Ad Tech, and Web 1.03:09 — Attribution Problems in Ad Tech & AI4:30 — Building Measurement Infrastructure6:49 — Software Eating Labor: Productivity Shifts8:51 — The Challenge of Measuring AI ROI14:54 — The Productivity Baseline Problem18:46 — Defining and Measuring Productivity21:27 — Goodhart’s Law & the Pitfalls of Metrics22:41 — The Harvey Example: Usage vs. Value25:18 — Surveys vs. Behavioral Data28:38 — Interdepartmental Responsiveness & Real-World Metrics31:00 — Enterprise AI Adoption: What the Data Shows33:59 — Employee Anxiety & Training Gaps38:31 — The Nexus Product & Safe AI Usage42:08 — The Future of Work: Job Loss or Job Creation?44:40 — The Competitive Advantage of AI53:45 — The Product Marketing Problem in AI55:00 — The Importance of Specific Use CasesResources:Follow Russ Fradin on X: https://x.com/rfradinFollow Alex Rampell on X: https://x.com/arampell Stay Updated:If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16zFind a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16zListen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYXListen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenbergPlease note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures. Stay Updated:Find a16z on XFind a16z on LinkedInListen to the a16z Podcast on SpotifyListen to the a16z Podcast on Apple PodcastsFollow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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