STARTS MAY 12TH · BI-WEEKLY · LIVE
WTF IS THE
A bi-weekly live series for AI leaders and builders. One burning question per episode, an open AMA floor, and guests who've actually built context infrastructure.
FROM ONTOLOGY TO CONTEXT LAYER: WHAT ACTUALLY CHANGED WITH AI?
Both ontologies and context layers are trying to solve the same problem: give AI an understanding of what business concepts actually mean. Ontologies were the original attempt to encode the meaning human organizations run on. Jessica Talisman has been building ontologies since before LLMs existed. She joins Austin to give her honest take.
Bring your questions.
We'll bring answers.
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Context is having a moment. Every new startup, and legacy business, is now a context company. The LangChain CEO called context engineering the defining skill for AI. Even MIT published a piece on context being the single biggest reason for AI failures.
And in all of this noise, you're still left with real questions nobody's answering. This series is built to work through your questions, with guests who actually know what they're talking about.
Why do my AI agents keep getting enterprise data wrong?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
How do I give AI the context that lives in my people's heads?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
How can I make sure our organizational context stays our own?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
How do I actually know if my context layer is working?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
Who should own the context layer?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
What does an AI team look like when it owns the context layer?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
Is context engineering a real discipline?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
How do you know when your context layer is good enough to ship an agent?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
Does every company need one, or is this only for large enterprises?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
Why do my AI agents keep getting enterprise data wrong?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
How do I give AI the context that lives in my people's heads?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
How can I make sure our organizational context stays our own?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
How do I actually know if my context layer is working?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
Who should own the context layer?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
What does an AI team look like when it owns the context layer?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
Is context engineering a real discipline?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
How do you know when your context layer is good enough to ship an agent?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
Does every company need one, or is this only for large enterprises?
WTF IS THE
CONTEXT LAYER
What are your burning questions about the context layer?
UPCOMING SESSIONS
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Both ontologies and context layers are trying to solve the same problem: give AI an understanding of what business concepts actually mean. Ontologies were the original attempt to encode the meaning human organizations run on. Whether the context layer is a new name for the same job, or whether AI changed something fundamental about how it gets done. Jessica Talisman has been building ontologies since before LLMs existed. She joins Austin to give her honest take.
QUESTIONS WE'LL TACKLE:
- Ontologies have existed for thirty years. Why did its enterprise adoption stall?
- When AI can generate an ontology, what does the human still have to own?
- What can an ontology give an AI agent that a semantic layer cannot?
- Is the context layer a genuine evolution of ontology, or a rebrand?
Emil Eifrem and Prukalpa Sankar agree on the problem: enterprise AI fails when agents can't navigate the relationships that give data meaning. Emil argues graph databases are the foundation — the layer that maps how entities and relationships connect. Prukalpa argues: graph databases store structure, but the context layer carries meaning, governance, and lineage. They join Austin to work toward a shared picture of what enterprise AI actually needs.
QUESTIONS WE'LL TACKLE:
- What actually counts as a context layer?
- Is a graph database a foundation, a component, or one option among several for the context layer?
- A graph database maps how everything connects. Is that enough for AI to trust the data?
- Graph databases aren't new to enterprise. So why is the context problem still unsolved?
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