The Woman Behind Gemini: How AI Is Actually Built and Who It Will Replace | Sneha Shah

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

If you're ready to feel confident again, visit orderlymeds.com to learn about which GLP-1 you may be eligible for. Getting started is fast, easy, and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals. Gain confidence, choose healthy habits this fall, check it out for yourself. Go to orderlymeds.com, that's orderlymeds.com. Taking care of yourself feels great. Compounded medications are not FDA approved, eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details.

SPEAKER_2 (0:30)

This message comes from Capital One Commercial Bank. Your business requires commercial banking solutions that prioritize your long-term success. With Capital One, get a full suite of financial products and services tailored to meet your needs today and goals for tomorrow. Learn more at capital.one.com/commercial.

Member FDIC.

Justin Colby (0:55)

What is up, The Entrepreneur DNA, AI, AI. It's all anyone can talk about. This episode is going to blow your mind with the guest I have today. Now, us little people, we're just getting into AI. This is a big topic for us, but for the big boys, the Amazons, the Googles, this has been around for a long time. And I have the Queen Bee who has been running this for these companies for the last two decades.

She is the lead AI specialist for Google and Amazon. Sneha Shah is here. How are you?

Sneha Shah (1:31)

I'm doing very well. Thank you, Justin, for having me. And very honored to have that level of introduction.

Justin Colby (1:37)

Yeah. I just told you off camera, I was like, you're like the little ninja in the back pocket of all these big, big companies. No one knows this you like behind the scenes being the magician you are. Now, you're on your own thing and we're going to get to Hazel and everything that you're up to today.

But I want to take a step back. I think, you know, for most of the common people, the lay people, as we say, we look at Amazon and we say it does this shipping thing. And we look at Google and we say it does this search engine optimization thing. And we do it. We use it.

I order, well, my wife orders Amazon probably 10 times a day, right? And, you know, now AI is in the search engine category. But for the most part, Google over the last decade, I go to Google to go search whatever I want.

You are literally one of the founding members of how Amazon started Amazon delivery, correct?

Sneha Shah (2:33)

Absolutely. I was part of the team that made same day delivery happen. This is the magic where you order the previous night and it shows up at your doorstep 7 in the morning. We scaled it to about 10 countries.

And super proud of the scale that we've been able to build this at.

Justin Colby (2:53)

Yeah.

You know, it's funny because I just live here. I wasn't even aware Amazon had that many. Are you, well, not you, but are they 100% in most all countries at this point?

Sneha Shah (3:06)

Many, many countries at this point.

Justin Colby (3:08)

Now, walk us through what it took to build something at that scale, right? Like it wasn't like, oh, I'm just going to start in San Francisco, and I'm just going to do Amazon San Francisco.

Like, did you start with a state, a couple of states? Did you just go national? How did you build the scale with that?

Sneha Shah (3:25)

Correct. So a lot of people and a lot of team effort goes into this. I have to say, you know, many years went into building this. It is a combination of software, infrastructure, as well as the delivery team that powers this. But yes, we, Amazon has the culture of starting small. You know, they make it into a startup within the larger organization.

We started the delivery in Seattle, actually starts that small. Then you expand into bigger metros just to test the scale, and then you expand into countries.

You know, some of the bigger challenges was countries like India, you know, the population is huge. So the volume is immense.

Is there even the infrastructure to support it? So it is a gradual rollout. It took us many years, but we were pioneers in that. Even a Walmart took almost half a decade to follow on and be able to meet that. So, huge endeavor.

Justin Colby (4:29)

Oh my gosh. Were you one of those like little pods that started it in Seattle or built it out in Seattle and then let it expand? At what point were, when did you exit that? I mean, I can only imagine that was all consuming for how long?