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Clay Bavor

Co-Founder, Sierra

Search every verified Clay Bavor interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Clay Bavor, co-founder of Sierra, discussed the company's growth and approach to AI in recent podcast appearances. He described Sierra as one of the fastest-growing enterprise AI companies, serving more than 40% of the Fortune 50, and noted the company has raised over $1.5 billion from investors including Sequoia, Benchmark, Greenoaks, GV, and Tiger Global. Bavor stated that Sierra chose not to train its own frontier models, instead focusing on building AI agents for customer interactions, and he mentioned that the company has guided to lower valuations in funding rounds than it could have taken. In conversations about AI's broader impact, Bavor expressed views on the demand for frontier-level intelligence and the potential productivity gains in software engineering, suggesting gains could be closer to 20% rather than 3.8%, and that even a 2x improvement would effectively double an engineering team's size. He also discussed how technology trends compound over time, drawing parallels between past waves like the PC and current AI developments, and described how Sierra's pricing model for agents differs from traditional software, framing agents as software that completes tasks rather than merely assisting with them.

Recent appearances

  • Sierra and Plaid partner to power AI-driven finance

    August 03, 2026 · 📺 CNBC Television

    CNBC’s Kate Rooney sat down with Plaid CEO Zachary Perret and Sierra Co-Founder Clay Bavor to talk about the companies' new partnership to let AI agents pay for things on customers' behalf. Plus making sure it all happens safely behind the scenes as cybersecurity threats rise. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/42d859g » Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision » Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC » Watch CNBC on the go with CNBC+: https://www.cnbc.com/WatchCNBCPlus Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock marke…

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  • AI Agents Face the ROI Test

    July 13, 2026 · 📺 CNBC International

    AI agents are designed to do more than answer questions. They are meant to complete tasks. Sierra co-founder Clay Bavor joins CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal to discuss how AI agents are moving from demos into real business workflows, especially in customer service, sales and support. Bavor explains how Sierra builds and tests customer-facing AI agents before they go live, why companies want clearer ways to measure AI’s return on investment and how outcome-based pricing could challenge the way software companies get paid. The conversation also covers coding agents, rising AI token costs and why the…

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  • Open Models vs Frontier Models: Who Actually Wins? | The $100K Token Budget Every Engineer Will Need

    July 04, 2026 · 📺 20VC with Harry Stebbings

    Clay Bavor is the Co-Founder of Sierra, one of the world's fastest-growing enterprise AI companies. Sierra is valued at approximately $15.8 billion, has raised more than $1.5BN from leading investors including Sequoia, Benchmark, Greenoaks, GV and Tiger Global, and today serves more than 40% of the Fortune 50. The company recently surpassed $150 ARR, making it one of the fastest-growing enterprise software businesses in history. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:37 Why Clay finally said yes to building Sierra with Bret 5:53 Why Sierra chose not to trai…

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  • The Next Era of AI Agents: Sierra, Dreamer & CapitalG | 2026 Upfront Summit

    March 05, 2026 · 📺 Upfront Ventures

    Moderated by Bloomberg's Shirin Ghaffary, this panel at the 2026 Upfront Summit brings together three of the smartest founders and funders in the space in AI to break down what trusted human-agent partnerships actually look like and who will stand out in the next era of tech. Clay Bavor, co-founder of Sierra, David Singleton, co-founder and CEO of Dreamer, and Laela Sturdy, managing partner at CapitalG, share where agents are already delivering real results, what the SaaS business model reckoning means for the industry, and why the winners will be the ones who meet users where they already ar…

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  • This Former Google Exec Is Using AI To Transform Customer Service

    January 13, 2026 · 📺 Forbes

    Sierra Cofounder Clay Bavor sat down with Forbes to discuss the rapid growth of his conversational AI company Sierra and its mission to transform customer experience through branded agents. Bavor discusses Sierra’s "outcomes based" pricing model, the importance of deep personalization in AI, and the unique company culture symbolized by the eleven-foot Alphorns kept in their global offices. Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardn... Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?s... Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journa…

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  • Sierra’s Clay Bavor and Bret Taylor with Axios’ Ina Fried

    December 05, 2025 · 📺 Axios

    Axios chief technology correspondent Ina Fried speaks to Sierra co-founders Clay Bavor and Bret Taylor at Axios’ AI+ Summit in San Francisco, CA.

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  • Agentic AI MOOC | UC Berkeley CS294-196 Fall 2025 | Practical Lessons from Deploying...by Clay Bavor

    November 10, 2025 · 📺 Berkeley RDI

    CLAY BAVOR: So I was excited. That all came from Gemini. So I was hoping there would be some wild hallucinations in there, ...

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  • Sierra Co-founder Clay Bavor

    October 20, 2025 · 📺 The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

    Most people spend over 30 hours a year dealing with customer service—on hold, repeating account numbers, and navigating endless phone trees. But what if AI could fix that without losing the human touch? Clay Bavor, co-founder of Sierra (now valued at $10B) and former VP at Google, joins us to explore how AI agents are reshaping how companies interact with customers and what that means for the most complex service industry in the world: healthcare. We cover: 🧠 The difference between horizontal and. vertical AI solutions ⚙️ If systems of action will take over systems of record (like Epic) in en…

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  • Clay Bavor — Sierra — Future of agentic AI

    October 13, 2025 · 📺 Funnel Leasing

    Recorded live at Forum, this episode features a rare conversation with one of tech’s most influential minds: Clay Bavor, former head of Google Labs and now co-founder of Sierra. Clay joins Funnel CEO Tyler Christiansen to talk about the future of agentic AI—intelligent systems that don’t just respond, but act. Together, they unpack why this moment in AI is so significant, where the real impact lies, and how AI can elevate customer experiences by removing the rote and making room for what’s truly human. They also explore: — The origin and mission behind Sierra — Real-world AI use cases acros…

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  • Agents of Change - From Google Labs to AI Customer Experience - Fellows Forum 2025

    October 01, 2025 · 📺 Fellows Forum

    Fireside Chat: Agents of Change - From Google Labs to AI Customer Experience Guest: Clay Bavor, Co-founder and CTO at Sierra Host: JC Mao, General Partner at Fellows Fund

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  • How is AI Different Than Other Technology Waves? (With Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor) [ACQ2]

    August 18, 2025 · 📺 Acquired

    Is AI just better software? Or something completely different that requires a new paradigm to understand? Today we sit down with Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, two of the best product builders in the world to tackle that question. Bret and Clay are the co-founders of the AI company Sierra. Brett's resume reads like a greatest hits of Silicon Valley: co-creator of Google Maps, founder of FriendFeed (acquired by Facebook where he became CTO), founder of Quip (acquired by Salesforce where he became co-CEO), former Chairman of the Board at Twitter, and current Chairman of the Board at OpenAI. Clay s…

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  • Rise of the AI Architect — Clay Bavor, Cofounder, Sierra w/ Alessio Fanelli

    July 24, 2025 · 📺 AI Engineer

    As the amount of consumer facing AI products grows, the most forward leaning enterprises have created a new role: the AI Architect. These leaders are responsible for helping define, manage, and evolve their company's AI agent experiences over time. In this session, Clay Bavor (Cofounder of Sierra) will join Alessio Fanelli (co-host of Latent Space) in a fireside chat to share what it means to be an AI Architect, success stories from the market, and the future of the role. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction to Sierra and its mission 02:11 The concept of an "AI Architect" 05:13 Backgrounds of succ…

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