Episode Details

Every voice AI has the same problem

The moment you stop talking, it starts talking

But humans don’t work that way

In real conversations, pauses don’t always mean interruption. Sometimes they mean: keep going

Current AI misses this completely.

Amit Yadav spent years building real-time AI systems at Meta Reality Labs for Ray-Ban smart glasses

Now he’s building Fern: a sales copilot that assists teams live during meetings.

Not after the call.
During it.

The hard problem isn’t retrieval anymore.

It’s judgment.

Because the future of AI won’t be defined by smarter answers alone.

It’ll be defined by systems that understand how humans actually communicate.

🎙️ Amit Yadav, CEO & Co-Founder of Fern, on Fondo START pod

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01:24 “Imagine your sales rep hears a prospect question and answers appear instantly.”

01:55 The hardest AI problem: knowing the right time to help

02:09 “Our in-house model beats human judgment, ChatGPT, and Gemini.”

02:46 Building realtime AI systems for Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses

03:57 Fern’s desktop copilot listens and assists during meetings

04:34 The industry shift from prompted AI → proactive AI assistance

05:28 Replacing Slack searches, docs, and tabs during live calls

07:10 “The most exciting thing is AI helping you without asking for it.”

11:09 Why silence in human conversation doesn’t always mean interruption

14:15 The need for a realtime social-awareness layer between humans and LLMs

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Check out getfern.ai