AI Agents Demystified in 40 Minutes with Wade Foster of Zapier 🤖

Wade is the co-founder and CEO of Zapier. We’re both sick of everyone calling everything an “AI agent” so we had some real talk about what actually works instead. Wade gave me a practical tutorial of his AI workflow that triages 100+ emails to 10 and shared exactly how to find AI automation opportunities on your calendar. Wade and I talked about: (00:00) Why most people asking for agents actually want workflows (01:25) The AI automation spectrum explained with real examples (05:16) Live demo: Wade's email agent that triages 100+ emails down to 10 (13:27) The difference between APIs vs MCPs (18:52) Making Zapier AI-first: Why the CEO memo isn’t enough (24:08) Wade's response to AI influencers saying "RIP Zapier" (32:09) How Zapier tests for AI fluency in job interviews (35:31) How to identify what to automate with AI in your calendar This episode is brought to you by Vellum. Use the code AIAGENTS25 to get 25% off your first 3 months with Vellum: https://vellum.ai/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=PeterYangPodcast 📌 Get my top 10 takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/ai-agents-clearly-explained-in-40-minutes-zapier-wade-foster Where to find Wade: X: https://x.com/wadefoster Website: https://zapier.com Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!