Show notes
In this episode of An Hour of Innovation podcast, host Vit Lyoshin sits down with Spiros Xanthos, Founder and CEO of Resolve AI, to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming the world of DevOps, observability, and software reliability.Spiros shares how Resolve AI is building autonomous AI agents that act like site reliability engineers, capable of troubleshooting incidents, detecting root causes, and even generating pull requests to fix issues before they escalate. The conversation delves into how AI automation is redefining what it means to be an engineer, the evolving trust relationship between humans and AI, and the technical challenges of creating systems that are smart enough to operate in complex production environments. Spiros also opens up about his entrepreneurial journey as a serial founder, his lessons from building multiple startups, and why Resolve AI is the hardest and most rewarding company he’s ever built.Spiros Xanthos is a serial entrepreneur, technologist, and innovator in the observability and AI DevOps space. Before founding Resolve AI, he co-founded Omnition, which was acquired by Splunk, and Log Insight, which was acquired by VMware. He’s also one of the co-creators of OpenTelemetry, the open-source standard for telemetry data that powers modern observability systems. Today, as CEO of Resolve AI, Spiros leads a team that’s pioneering AI-driven reliability engineering, combining deep observability expertise with cutting-edge AI research to build self-healing software systems.Support This Podcast* To support our work, please check out our sponsors and get discounts: https://www.anhourofinnovation.com/sponsors/Takeaways* AI is moving beyond code generation; it’s now running and maintaining production systems.* The biggest challenge in AI DevOps isn’t data, it’s reasoning across code, logs, and systems.* Trust is earned; AI systems must prove reliability through transparency and evidence.* AI can make safe, reversible changes autonomously, reducing human fatigue and error.* The hardest part of building Resolve AI was teaching AI to reason like an engineer.* Spiros believes AI won’t replace engineers; it will create more of them by automating repetitive work.* The role of engineers will shift from coding to directing and orchestrating AI agents.* Many current DevOps tools were built for humans; the next generation must be agent-first.* Founders should practice radical transparency to build trust and alignment in their teams.* Psychological safety and risk-taking are essential for innovation in AI startups.* Even without a product, talking to users and showing prototypes accelerates validation.* The future of software is self-healing, intelligent, and AI-managed systems.* Every product in the next decade will have an AI-first version or be replaced by one.Timestamps00:00 Introduction: AI and the Future of Software05:08 Resolve AI vs Other AI Tools07:36 Human Oversight in AI Decisions09:12 Building Trust in AI Systems10:53 Challenges in AI Development14:19 Future of Software Engineering with AI16:53 Unsolved Gaps in AI and DevOps18:12 Industry Views on AI Automation19:50 Lessons from Serial Entrepreneurship23:01 Competing for AI Talent23:54 Inside Fast-Moving AI Startups25:52 Customer-Driven AI Product Development27:46 Engaging Users Without a Product29:49 Choosing the Right Startup Idea32:18 Key Lessons for AI Entrepreneurs34:26 Building Strong AI Teams36:11 Funding and Growth in AI Startups37:28 Future of AI in DevOps39:08 Opportunities in the AI Revolution41:51 Final Advice for EntrepreneursConnect with Spiros* Website: https://resolve.ai/ * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spiros/ * X: https://x.com/spirosx Connect with Vit* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vit-lyoshin/ * X: https://x.com/vitlyoshin Vit’s Projects* Podcast: https://www.anhourofinnovation.com/ * AI Assistant to build apps: https://appforgelab.com/