Brex’s AI Hail Mary — With CTO James Reggio - Latent Space Recap

Podcast: Latent Space

Published: 2026-01-17

Duration: 1 hr 13 min

Guests: James Reggio

Summary

James Reggio, CTO of Brex, outlines their innovative three-pillar AI strategy which has transformed operations and product offerings. The strategy empowers employees to build their own AI tools and focuses on enhancing workflows, reducing costs, and integrating Brex into clients' AI strategies.

What Happened

Brex's AI strategy is structured around three pillars: corporate AI, operational AI, and product AI. James Reggio explains that corporate AI focuses on enhancing employee workflows by integrating AI tools across the business. Operational AI aims to reduce costs and improve compliance through automation in processes like KYC, fraud detection, and underwriting. Product AI is designed to make Brex a compelling part of clients' own AI strategies, providing features that businesses can present to their boards as part of their AI adoption.

Reggio details how Brex's internal AI platform became a cornerstone of their strategy. This platform includes a proprietary LLM gateway and various tools for managing AI applications, which have quietly become force multipliers across the company. Employees are encouraged to build their own AI stacks, choosing tools like ChatGPT or Claude, which fosters innovation and avoids picking favorites in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

One of the key innovations at Brex is the use of multi-agent networks, which coordinate specialist agents through multi-turn conversations rather than one-shot tool calls. This setup mimics an executive assistant coordinating various tasks, shifting the future of finance software away from traditional dashboards to a more integrated and automated approach.

Brex's operational AI also involves an audit agent pattern, separating detection, judgment, and follow-up tasks to minimize false negatives while keeping finance teams from being overwhelmed. This multi-agent system not only improves efficiency but also enhances accuracy, which is crucial in financial operations.

The AI team, comprising around 10 members, has grown in influence within Brex without increasing headcount. Instead, AI has amplified the efficiency of existing resources, enabling the company to serve over 40,000 companies effectively. This approach underscores Reggio's belief that AI development enhances both good and bad aspects of business operations, thereby necessitating careful management.

Brex's commitment to AI fluency is evident in their internal training and evaluation processes. Employees are encouraged to progress from users to AI-native builders, supported by initiatives like spot bonuses for novel AI applications. This strategy not only boosts AI adoption but also ensures the team remains competitive and innovative in a fast-moving field.

Reggio emphasizes the need for a robust evaluation strategy, moving beyond simple SOPs to multi-turn evaluations. These tests ensure AI systems are reliable and effective, with measures in place to address regressions and ensure coherence and accuracy in responses.

Key Insights