Forward Future Live | 10/3/25

The podcast introduces Agentic Commerce by Stripe, Bolt V2 for AI-powered full-stack development, and Red Hat's perspective on AI's impact on open source, emphasizing the transformative nature of AI on economy, development, and job markets.

• Agentic Commerce simplifies AI-driven purchases, enhancing security and market access for businesses.

• Bolt V2 empowers non-developers to build professional-grade software using advanced AI agents.

• AI amplifies open source innovation, creating new job opportunities and transforming existing roles towards strategic thinking and machine management.

The episode of Forward Future Live, recorded on October 3rd, 2025, features discussions with three prominent guests: Emily Glassberg Sands from Stripe, Eric Simons from Bolt.new, and Matt Hicks from Red Hat. Key topics include the launch of Stripe's Agentic Commerce protocol, which integrates AI into purchasing experiences, and Bolt V2's advancement in AI-driven full-stack development, alongside Red Hat's strategy for open source in the age of AI. The guests collectively highlight AI's role in accelerating innovation, transforming job roles, and shaping future economic and technological landscapes.

Podcast Overview

• 00:05:05 The Forward Future Live hosts welcome viewers to the October 3rd, 2025, episode, introducing special guests Emily Glassberg Sands from Stripe, Eric Simons from Bolt.new, and Matt Hicks from Red Hat. Topics for discussion include Agentic Commerce, the future of full-stack development, and AI's impact on open-source business models.

Sora 2 Release & Features

• 00:06:47 OpenAI's Sora 2 was recently released, offering advanced video generation capabilities through an invite-only app, with an Android version via sorora.com and an API coming soon. Users can modify generated videos with new prompts, fostering a social and creative platform, which the hosts acknowledge as a delightful product on the path to AGI, despite initial user feedback on 'AI slop.'

Claude Sonnet 4.5 Innovations

• 00:11:22 Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.5 impressed the team by autonomously coding for 30 hours straight on a single task, significantly surpassing previous records. The key metric for evaluating such models is 'intelligence per watt,' focusing on the quality and efficiency of output, alongside the extended autonomous work window.

Stripe's Agentic Commerce

• 00:15:32 Stripe launched its Agentic Commerce protocol, enabling direct purchases within AI tools like ChatGPT from platforms such as Etsy and Shopify. This system uses a shared payment token to securely transmit transaction details without exposing full card credentials, enhancing safety and fraud prevention while simplifying the buying experience for consumers and streamlining product exposure for merchants.

Stripe's Business Growth

• 00:23:51 Businesses utilizing Stripe are experiencing growth seven times faster than the S&P 500, attributed to their tech-forward nature, strong presence of fast-growing AI startups, and Stripe's robust infrastructure. Traditional enterprises also benefit from Stripe's optimized checkout, omnichannel capabilities, and tools for new business models like subscription or usage-based billing.

Future of Digital Commerce

• 00:28:50 The hosts and Emily Glassberg Sands discuss how Agentic Commerce will change consumer behavior, making shopping effortless for those with financial resources by reducing the 'opportunity cost of time.' This could lead to a significant increase in consumption and GDP, and potentially democratize discovery for small businesses through platforms like Etsy by enabling agents to find niche products efficiently in a global market.

Bolt V2 for Developers

• 00:57:07 Bolt.new released V2, a text-to-app web-based tool that merges frontier lab AI agents (like Claude Code and OpenAI Codex) with integrated cloud infrastructure for full-stack web app development. This advancement aims to professionalize 'vibe coding,' allowing non-developers to build complex, scalable software, with current users including 72% of Fortune 500 companies and billions in revenue generated through Bolt-built products.

Open Source in AI Era

• 01:38:08 Red Hat's CEO, Matt Hicks, believes AI acts as a powerful amplifier for open source, accelerating development and lowering entry barriers for coding. While large frontier models are expensive to train, smaller, specialized open-weight models (10 billion parameters and below) foster thriving collaborative communities, aligning with Red Hat's focus on efficient inference to make AI profitable and accessible for enterprises.