HomeSierra's Bret Taylor declares the end of the button-clicking era
Bret Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Sierra—a startup building AI customer service agents for enterprises—believes the way humans interact with software is about to change dramatically in the near future.
Sierra recently launched Ghostwriter, an agent designed to build other agents. With this "agent as a service" platform, the startup aims to replace traditional click-based web applications with natural language. Users simply describe what they need, and Ghostwriter autonomously creates and deploys a specialized agent to execute the task.
Taylor, former co-CEO of Salesforce, argues that replacing software with language-driven prompts is compelling because many enterprise tools see infrequent use.
“You sign into Workday when you onboard as a new employee, and maybe for open enrollment,” Taylor told attendees at the HumanX conference in San Francisco this week. Instead of learning to navigate complex systems, he argued that users will soon use natural language to complete tasks without ever interacting with the software interface.
“I truly believe that’s where the world is heading,” Taylor said.
He added that Sierra is already leveraging Ghostwriter to deploy agents at “unparalleled speeds.” As an example, Taylor noted that his startup implemented an agent for Nordstrom in just four weeks.
Last fall, Sierra announced it had reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) less than 21 months after being founded. The company was most recently valued at $10 billion following a $350 million funding round led by Greenoaks Capital in September.
“Most companies don’t want to build software,” Taylor said. “They want solutions to their problems.”
While Taylor predicts a fundamental shift in software is coming, several technologists and investors tell TechCrunch that, for now, AI agent implementation remains far from autonomous.
Many companies claiming to offer AI agents—including Sierra and legal AI startup Harvey—employ “forward-deployed” engineers who must constantly update and fine-tune customer agents to ensure they work as intended.
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![JoeGonzález]()
So if buttons are dead, what's next? Talking to AI agents like they're humans? I'm both excited and terrified 😅. The idea of 'Ghostwriter' sounds cool but privacy concerns? Hope they don't turn into another surveillance tool.
Bret Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Sierra—a startup building AI customer service agents for enterprises—believes the way humans interact with software is about to change dramatically in the near future.
Sierra recently launched Ghostwriter, an agent designed to build other agents. With this "agent as a service" platform, the startup aims to replace traditional click-based web applications with natural language. Users simply describe what they need, and Ghostwriter autonomously creates and deploys a specialized agent to execute the task.
Taylor, former co-CEO of Salesforce, argues that replacing software with language-driven prompts is compelling because many enterprise tools see infrequent use.
“You sign into Workday when you onboard as a new employee, and maybe for open enrollment,” Taylor told attendees at the HumanX conference in San Francisco this week. Instead of learning to navigate complex systems, he argued that users will soon use natural language to complete tasks without ever interacting with the software interface.
“I truly believe that’s where the world is heading,” Taylor said.
He added that Sierra is already leveraging Ghostwriter to deploy agents at “unparalleled speeds.” As an example, Taylor noted that his startup implemented an agent for Nordstrom in just four weeks.
Last fall, Sierra announced it had reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) less than 21 months after being founded. The company was most recently valued at $10 billion following a $350 million funding round led by Greenoaks Capital in September.
“Most companies don’t want to build software,” Taylor said. “They want solutions to their problems.”
While Taylor predicts a fundamental shift in software is coming, several technologists and investors tell TechCrunch that, for now, AI agent implementation remains far from autonomous.
Many companies claiming to offer AI agents—including Sierra and legal AI startup Harvey—employ “forward-deployed” engineers who must constantly update and fine-tune customer agents to ensure they work as intended.
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So if buttons are dead, what's next? Talking to AI agents like they're humans? I'm both excited and terrified 😅. The idea of 'Ghostwriter' sounds cool but privacy concerns? Hope they don't turn into another surveillance tool.
