Staniszewski: Deep domain integrations create defensibility for AI startups
Mati Staniszewski · The $11B Bet That Voice Will Replace Everything | Mati Staniszewski x Nikhil Kamath | WTF Online · Nikhil Kamath · Mar 11, 2026 · at 46:08
ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski outlines how vertical AI applications can defend against foundational model providers.
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“If you know domain extremely well, then The AI model, this, you know, gives you a good starting point, but then integrations with the system, the legacy systems of how you deliver that, telephony how you bring the knowledge, that will take so much time. Then like building the trust with evaluations, monitoring, that will take a lot of time. So I think there's like so much opportunity for entrepreneurs to just take any of those models, go deeply into the domain and combine both best of both.”
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