出品｜虎嗅科技组 作者｜李一飞 编辑｜陈伊凡 头图｜Clay领英主页 "AI 原生 100" 是虎嗅科技组推出针对 AI 原生创新栏目，这是本系列的第「 21 」篇文章。 18个月，估值飙到 100 亿美元，到账 6.35 亿美元现金，年经常性收入逼近 1 亿美元——放在任何时 代都是"火箭"，在 AI 赛道也属罕见。 即便是在快速发展的AI创业时代，也很少见。 9 月，全球知名互联网投资公司Greenoaks Capital 又添一把火：领投 3.5 亿美元，让 Sierra 正式跻 身"百亿美金俱乐部"。 这家由前 Salesforce 联席 CEO Bret Taylor 与前谷歌高管 Clay Bavor 联手创办的 AI 客服公司，只 做一件事：用生成式 AI 替企业"包办"客户体验。成立伊始，它就按下快进键：产品上线、拿下大客 户、数据反哺模型、体验更优，飞轮越转越快。 "需求爆了。"嘉和资本 CEO 袁子恒一句话点破玄机，因为美国客服是人力"黑洞"，工资高、流动 大；恰好大模型最擅长多轮对话，企业换 AI 立竿见影。如今语音 AI 又成熟，电话端节省的人力可 量化、可计算尤其是随着AI语音技术的 ...

Core Insights - Sierra, an AI customer service company, achieved a valuation of $10 billion in just 18 months, with $635 million in cash and an annual recurring revenue nearing $100 million, marking it as a rare success in the AI sector [2][4][12] - The company focuses on enhancing customer experience through generative AI, addressing the high costs and turnover associated with human customer service [4][9][10] - Sierra's founders, Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, leverage their extensive backgrounds in tech to drive the company's rapid growth and innovation [11][12] Company Overview - Sierra was co-founded by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and ex-Google executive Clay Bavor, who aimed to revolutionize customer service by using AI to understand and fulfill customer needs rather than merely executing commands [7][11] - The company has rapidly acquired major clients, including WeightWatchers and Sonos, and has expanded its customer base to hundreds across various industries such as finance, consumer goods, and healthcare [13][14] Business Model - Sierra targets medium to large enterprises, focusing on high-value contracts with an average starting price of $150,000, which allows for deep integration and customization of AI services [19][17] - The company employs an outcome-based pricing model, where clients pay for successful resolutions of customer issues rather than usage, aligning Sierra's incentives with those of its clients [32] Technology and Innovation - Sierra does not develop its own large language models but integrates various leading models into its platform, allowing flexibility for clients to choose based on their needs [23] - The company has implemented a governance mechanism to ensure data security and compliance, which includes automatic detection and encryption of personal information [26] Market Trends - The AI customer service industry is projected to continue expanding rapidly, with increasing demand for self-service solutions and intelligent customer engagement [33] - Sierra faces competition from various players in the market, including Intercom, Kore.ai, and Genesys, each offering unique features and services [33] Challenges and Future Outlook - The AI customer service sector is not without risks, including issues related to model reliability, data privacy, and evolving customer expectations [34] - Sierra's success will depend on its ability to navigate these challenges while continuing to innovate and expand its client base [34]

Core Insights - The emergence of the MCP (Model Context Protocol) is reshaping the AI industry, promoting a more egalitarian approach to technology and focusing on the effectiveness of AI products rather than the underlying models [1][3][10] - The global AI Agent market is projected to grow significantly, from $5.29 billion in 2024 to $216.8 billion by 2035, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.15% [3][10] - Major tech companies are increasingly adopting the MCP protocol, which aims to standardize interactions between AI models and external tools, akin to foundational internet protocols like HTTP [5][9] Industry Dynamics - The AI industry is experiencing a shift from traditional applications to AI Agents and terminal devices, driven by advancements in technologies such as natural language processing and machine learning [10] - The MCP protocol is seen as a solution to the complexities faced by developers in integrating various tools and models, highlighting a clear market demand for standardized protocols [8][9] - Companies like OpenAI, Tencent, and Alibaba are actively supporting the MCP protocol, indicating a collective movement towards a unified framework in the AI ecosystem [6][7][5] Competitive Landscape - The competition between MCP and Google's A2A (Agent2Agent) protocol illustrates the ongoing struggle for dominance in the AI Agent space, with both protocols seeking developer and enterprise support [7][9] - The industry is still in its early stages, with ongoing optimization of the MCP protocol and a focus on addressing the challenges of model consistency and interoperability [10][11] - The potential for collaboration between different protocols exists, particularly given the investment relationships among key players like Google and Anthropic [7][9] Future Outlook - The development of AI Agents is expected to lower the barriers for consumers in using software and smart hardware, with a focus on enhancing user experience through intuitive interactions [11] - The evolution of the MCP protocol is anticipated to address critical issues such as authentication and discovery mechanisms, which are essential for commercial applications [12] - As the market matures, the demand for effective applications rather than mere traffic aggregation will drive the future of the MCP marketplace [12]

"AI 可以生成代码了，人类程序员过往能写代码的核心竞争力没了，还能做些什么？" 最近，随着 AI 大模型能力的进一步精进， GitHub Copilot、Cursor、Devin、Manus、 Claude 等工具密集刷新登场，程序员圈子里越来越多的人开始发出这样的疑问。 要知道，过去调 Bug、查文档、撸代码，样样都得亲力亲为，如今只需对着屏幕说句话， 或敲一句自然语言，AI 就能唰唰唰地帮你把项目生出来。比如你随口一句" 用 JavaScript 写个贪吃蛇 "，或许咖啡还没凉，一个能跑的网页游戏就已经搭好了；又比如，前 OpenAI 大佬 Andrej Karpathy 不久前在社交平台 X 上展示的：哪怕完全不会 Swift，也能靠 AI 在 一小时内搓出个 iOS 应用 。 Karpathy 把这种方式叫作 "氛围编程"（Vibe Coding）——听起来有点玄，其实就是"和 AI 唠嗑写代码"。不管是开发者还是普通爱好者，都不用死磕语法、也不再纠结框架配置， 直接说："我要一个自动登录的按钮"、"这里加个缓存"，AI 就一行一行替你敲好。听起来 像开挂一样，但问题也随之而来：代码是能跑没错，可你 ...

Core Viewpoint - OpenAI has achieved a significant milestone with a new funding round of $40 billion, raising its post-money valuation to $300 billion, nearly doubling its valuation from $157 billion in October 2022, indicating a surge in investor interest in the AI sector [1][2][3]. Funding Details - OpenAI completed a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank Group, with participation from Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive, marking one of the largest private funding rounds in history [2][3]. - Approximately $18 billion of the new funding will be allocated to the Stargate infrastructure project, aimed at establishing a data center network to support AI workloads in the U.S. [3]. - SoftBank plans to invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI, with the first $10 billion expected to be paid in mid-April and the remainder by December [4]. Revenue Projections - OpenAI anticipates its revenue to double this year to $12.7 billion, a 243% increase from $3.7 billion in 2024, with further growth expected to reach $29.4 billion next year [6]. Competitive Landscape - OpenAI is facing increasing competition from companies like DeepSeek and Meta, which are adopting open-source strategies for their AI models. OpenAI plans to release its first open-source language model since GPT-2 in the coming months [7][8]. - The upcoming open-source model is expected to have similar reasoning capabilities to OpenAI's existing models, and the company is actively seeking feedback from developers and researchers [8]. Industry Trends - Major tech companies, including Apple, Google, and OpenAI, are focusing on AI agents as a key area for development by 2025, which could be a pivotal year for the industry [9]. - The support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) by OpenAI is expected to enhance the development of complex automation applications, further expanding its ecosystem [8][9].

Investment Rating - The industry investment rating is "Positive" and is maintained [8] Core Insights - On March 27, OpenAI announced a significant update to its Agent SDK, officially supporting the Model Context Protocol (MCP) service, which allows developers to connect various third-party tools through a unified interface, greatly enhancing the efficiency of developing complex automation applications [2][5] - The report suggests focusing on three types of industry opportunities: (1) The maturation of AI Agents, particularly in companion robots, personal assistants, and enterprise assistant scenarios; (2) Vertical vendors with both scene and technical advantages that will benefit from the upgrading of scenarios as technology and tools improve; (3) Technology-driven companies, particularly those representing multimodal capabilities, which are expected to expand their business boundaries by penetrating more scenarios [2][11] Summary by Sections Event Description - OpenAI's update to the Agent SDK includes support for the MCP service, which standardizes interfaces for AI models to connect to various data sources and tools, reducing development costs and accelerating AI Agent development [5][11] Event Commentary - The MCP is seen as a potential standard interface solution, with over 1,000 community-built MCP servers available as of February this year. The widespread application of MCP is expected to accelerate the development of the AI Agent industry [11] - Major tech companies like Apple, Google, and OpenAI are prioritizing AI Agents as a key focus for 2025, which may mark the year of significant growth for the AI Agent sector [11]