Brex's Bold Move: How They're Winning with AI

Brex, a company renowned for its corporate credit cards, is addressing the challenge of keeping pace with rapid AI advancements.

The Challenge

Traditional company processes struggle to keep up with the fast-evolving AI landscape. Brex's CTO, James Reggio, shared their innovative solution at a recent conference.

Initial Approach

Brex initially used their standard, slow procurement process to evaluate AI tools. However, by the time they completed the evaluation, the tools were already outdated, and interest had waned. This served as a crucial wake-up call.

New Strategy

Brex's new approach involves:

• Faster Evaluation: A streamlined process to assess AI tools quickly.
• Employee Empowerment: Engineers receive a monthly budget to select tools from an approved list, enabling them to choose what works best for their needs.

Reggio refers to this method as a "superhuman product-market-fit test". It aims to determine a tool's true value before significant investment.

Lessons Learned

Brex has experimented with numerous tools, and not all have met their standards. However, Reggio emphasizes that this trial-and-error process is invaluable for learning and growth.

Advice for Other Companies

Reggio advises other companies to "embrace the messiness". It's better to try and learn than to wait and fall behind. He cautions against spending excessive time evaluating tools, as the AI world evolves rapidly.