Session Overview
In this fireside chat from Data Streaming Summit (DSS) 2026, Sijie Guo sits down with Justin Zhu (Founder & CEO of Mithra, Co-founder & former CEO of Iterable) to discuss how the transition from traditional SaaS to agentic AI is transforming software architecture, data streaming, and marketing technology.
Justin shares practical lessons from scaling Iterable—powering billions of customer interactions with Apache Pulsar and StreamNative—and breaks down why the AI era demands moving beyond volume-based metrics to outcome-driven, real-time architectures.
What You'll Learn
- SaaS to Agentic AI: Moving from seat-based pricing and fixed user journeys to 1:1 agent-driven experiences and outcome-based models.
- The Return on AI (ROAI): Balancing open-source models, cost-efficiency, and enterprise-grade compliance.
- Why Real-Time Streaming Matters: Why batch workflows fall short for AI agents and how live context requires scalable streaming infrastructure like Apache Pulsar.
- Infrastructure Evolution: The architectural shift from RabbitMQ to Apache Pulsar to support massive concurrency and low latency.
- The Role of Humans in the Loop: Why human judgment and creativity remain essential in an automated, agent-driven future.
