Paving the road for AI agents: Interview with Factory CEO Matan Grinberg
Paving the road for AI agents: Interview with Factory CEO Matan Grinberg
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-technology/our-insights/paving-the-road-for-ai-agents-interview-with-factory-ceo-matan-grinberg?
Matan Grinberg is CEO and cofounder of Factory. Martin Harrysson is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Bay Area office.
Factory CEO and cofounder Matan Grinberg discusses why scaling AI in software engineering depends less on flashy demos and more on changes to the operating model and how teams work.
In April 2023, Matan Grinberg left a PhD program in theoretical physics to found Factory, which builds software development agents called Droids for enterprise environments. In a conversation with McKinsey Senior Partner Martin Harrysson, he reflected on what it takes to move from AI pilots to scaled adoption, how agent-native development changes engineers’ daily workflows, and why the hardest part of a transformation is often behavioral, not technical.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Martin Harrysson: You started your career in theoretical physics. How did that lead to founding Factory?
Matan Grinberg: I spent about a decade as a theoretical physicist, working on quantum field theory, general relativity, and string theory. It was while I was at UC Berkeley for my PhD that I realized physics was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
I started taking AI courses and became interested in what was then called program synthesis, now called code generation. The idea that AI systems—built in code—could actually write code themselves got me obsessed.
After about a year and a half exploring that, it became clear to me that the best way to pursue it wasn’t through academia but by starting a company. I cold-emailed a former physicist who is now at Sequoia [a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley]. We went on a long walk, and he challenged me to take the leap. I left my PhD program shortly after—and that’s how Factory began in April 2023.
Martin Harrysson: Many enterprises have experimented with AI in software development, but not all have seen a step change in impact. What differentiates those that are scaling?
Matan Grinberg: Since day one, our mission has been to bring autonomy to software engineering. We build software development agents—which we call Droids—designed specifically for enterprises. But they’re not just for vibe coding or building a website from scratch. We’ve focused on legacy migrations and code bases that are sometimes older than the people working on them.
That’s where enterprises actually get stuck and where a lot of potential is locked up.
We like to use an analogy: Software development agents are like Ferraris. But if you drop a Ferrari into San Francisco in 1850 with dirt roads and horses, it’s not going to perform well. You might crash it into a ditch and conclude that cars don’t work. Before organizations can really benefit from agents, they need to “pave the roads.”
In practice, that means documentation, test coverage, CI/CD [continuous integration and continuous delivery], observability, linters, integrations with internal tools, and access to the kind of tacit knowledge human engineers rely on. If those things aren’t in place, agents struggle. If they are, performance improves. And as a side effect, paving those roads makes life easier for human engineers, too.
Martin Harrysson: What convinces organizations to make that investment in paving the roads?
Matan Grinberg: In every organization, there are AI enthusiasts—the people who are willing to take a bet on their reputation and have their team try this out. They’ll go and pave a small stretch of road and use AI agents there to show it works.
If you’re working with the right people, they know which engineers to bring over and say, “Look at this.” And especially when the work involves something like a legacy migration where no one wants to spend more time than necessary, engineers are very open to something that makes the job easier.
Once that small area shows real results, others in the organization are much more willing to pave more roads and try it themselves. But it typically starts with a few people who are willing to go first.
Martin Harrysson: You’ve described paving the roads as an enterprise challenge. How have you approached it at Factory, and what has changed in how your engineers work?
Matan Grinberg: The enemy of AI agents is tacit knowledge—things discussed but not written down. If I know something that an AI agent doesn’t, I have to remember to tell it. That creates friction.
Internally, we record every meeting. Our Droids generate notes and store them in a repository. If a prompt from an engineer is incomplete, a Droid can look at how Factory typically makes decisions and use that context to go ahead.
We also have Droids that automatically start working on tickets the moment they’re created. If a customer reports a bug, a Droid tries to reproduce it, fix it, and test the fix in a virtual environment. A meaningful portion of bug fixes now happen this way.
The mindset shift is that the new directive isn’t to write a line of code. It’s to delegate to an agent. Before a meeting or before going to bed, engineers think about what they can offload. You can ask an agent to try five different approaches overnight, and then you can review the results in the morning. That’s a very different way of structuring your day.
Martin Harrysson: If the focus in the product development life cycle shifts from writing code to delegating work to agents, traditional role boundaries begin to blur. How does that change responsibilities inside an organization?
Matan Grinberg: I think it clarifies ownership.
Before, someone could say, “I don’t write code, so that’s not my fault.” Now code is more of a tool across roles. In our sales organization, for example, people ship code for automations across their software.
The distinction shifts away from who produces which input and toward outcomes. Who owns the customer outcome? Who owns a feature’s adoption? If something goes wrong, who is accountable?
That focus on scope and ownership becomes more important than traditional role boundaries.
Martin Harrysson: You’ve described a shift away from inputs and toward outcomes. In a world where agents can generate large volumes of output, how should organizations think about measuring success?
Matan Grinberg: I think it’s phase by phase.
In phase one, the goal is adoption. You want as many developers as possible to become agent-native. Adoption percentage and daily usage matter. You shouldn’t be overly focused on efficiency or token costs at that stage.
Once adoption is high, you can shift toward efficiency and business-aligned metrics—story points delivered, features shipped, or other measures.
But ultimately, the right metric depends on the business bottleneck. For some companies, more features directly drive growth. For others, the constraint might be relationships, quality, or latency. Measuring success purely by engineering output might not make sense.
It forces organizations to focus on what actually matters for their business, not just what looks like good software productivity.
Martin Harrysson: As organizations pave the roads and shift toward outcome-based ownership, what do you expect will determine how quickly this change takes hold?
Matan Grinberg: A lot of what we discussed will take time to permeate large enterprises. Behavior change is hard.
I think people underestimate what it means to change how thousands of engineers work. If you have 10,000 engineers and their behavior shifts meaningfully, the speed at which that organization can deliver on its mission will change.
The pace of this shift depends less on whether the technology exists and more on how quickly organizations can change the way their engineers operate.
Executives tout value of operating offices like hotels
Efficiency and service key across sectors
Covivio Hotels' Tugdual Millet, center, speaks while, from left, Yotel's Phil Andreopoulos, Essendi's Gilles Clavie, BNP Paribas Asset Management's Vincent Mezard and Colliers' Larissa Esser listen at the International Hospitality Investment Forum EMEA in Berlin. (IHIF EMEA, Simon Callaghan Photography)
https://www.costar.com/article/1833710791/executives-tout-value-of-operating-offices-like-hotels?
BERLIN — Succeeding in hospitality in 2026 requires a higher degree of creativity and innovation than in years past, according to a panel of experts.
Focus on streamlining guest experience, overall efficiency, and bringing hospitality-like service to all forms of commercial real estate is vital.
Speaking during the 2026 International Hospitality Investment Forum EMEA, Yotel CEO Phil Andreopoulos said his company's North Star is always making things simple for travelers, which is evidenced by their use of check-in kiosks to allow guests to bypass a typical front desk experience.
"We were the pioneer there," he said. "We have robots delivering room service. We have all sorts of guest-facing tech that just works really well, and our guests love it. We are trying an AI assistant to help guests with their stay. So like a personal assistant. We are still in the test phases."
He said there are also back-end AI applications to explore, including "for building maintenance and for keeping track of my heat, light, power."
Vincent Mezard, global head of residential and hospitality for BNP Paribas Asset Management, said there are lots of ways hoteliers can employ data in operations, and the overarching themes should revolve around making the complex more understandable. He said that's equally true across all the commercial real estate he oversees.
He said any conversation with "a tenant or operator has to start with sharing data in a very open way."
He said that data then must be distilled in a way that empowers their people to make better decisions.
Tugdual Millet, CEO of Covivio Hotels, said he also sees potential for connectivity between hotels and other forms of real estate, and bringing more hospitality-inspired service to other asset classes, particularly offices, has been a big opportunity for his company. He said the company's own Paris headquarters is a showcase of this philosophy. That building's terrace-level meeting space is designed to compete with anything hotels can offer.
"Here is where hospitality is really adding value to the real estate," he said. "It's adding much more complexity in the way you are addressing your customers. We are not serving just the head of real estate at a company when we let an office. We are also addressing each of the people working in that building and putting more events and services in to make it really alive during the week."
Gilles Clavie, CEO of Essendi, agreed that the operational lessons from hospitality need to grow to support other commercial real estate classes.
"More and more, real estate owners are interested in [focusing on] operations to enlarge value creation," he said, adding it's key for owners to have a better understanding of the hotel operating model.
The more people are in tune with operations, the more they will see the value in overall efficiency, he said. And panelists agreed that artificial intelligence could be a great enabler of overall efficiency in operations.
"We look at food margin, and you can easily improve it by paying attention to food wastage," he said. "When everyone is conscious of this, you can put in some with artificial intelligence, have the team put in place daily routines, then suddenly you start to see improvement. ... We have done this where we have reduced food waste by more than 40%, which is huge in creating additional value."
Andreopoulos noted the lessons across commercial real estate can go both ways, and he believes more hoteliers should focus on profit per square meter as a key performance indicator.
"This is a much, much better metric where it makes us think very carefully in the design stage about how many keys we can put in and how profitable we can make this space versus the amount of space it's taking," he said.
At This Hotel, Murder Is Romantic
Courtesy of Mohonk Mountain House
https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/new-york/experiences/news/a-murder-mystery-weekend-at-mohonk-mountain-house-in-upstate-new-york
For this mystery novelist, there is nothing more romantic than heading upstate to witness—and hopefully solve—a murder.
My therapist once told me to stop reading murder mysteries on romantic getaways. I should find something lighter, she suggested, such as a book about an octopus or that memoir by a woman raising a falcon. I nodded at this sage advice and then, for my 25th wedding anniversary, I booked a murder mystery weekend instead.
In my defense, my husband, Tip, knew what he signed up for from the start. Our first trip together was to a haunted hot springs hotel, where I was researching a novel about the Nez Perce; the museum we drove two days to reach was closed for the winter. Tip has helped me structure every one of my twelve novels (lucky thirteen comes out in June) and there’s nothing more interesting to me than walking beside him and hearing about his wild and brilliant trains of scientific thought.
It’s long been my dream to attend the storied Murder Mystery Weekend at the Mohonk Mountain House, following in the footsteps of Edward Gorey, Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, and Mary Higgins Clark. Over the course of the weekend, guests are treated to a four-act play. In the hours between performances, there’s hiking, skiing, ice skating, a spa, reading nooks, and one culinary masterpiece after another, some even themed to go along with the murder plot. Decomposed Steak Tartare with brioche and black truffle, anyone?
In this crazy world of seemingly unresolvable confusion, I was drawn to the comfort of a murder mystery. A question would be posed. Suspects gathered, clues parsed. Then, by Sunday, we would know exactly what happened and who was to blame. For just one weekend, I yearned for a question that could be answered.
Mohonk Mountain House sits perched above a glacial lake in New York’s Hudson Valley, a Victorian castle of red-gabled turrets, whimsical towers, and more than 135 fireplaces that together produce a very convincing impression that you have stepped into an Agatha Christie novel. The glorious stone-and-timber structure has been welcoming guests since 1869, and in 1977, it pioneered the first murder mystery getaway.
Courtesy of Mohonk Mountain House
This year marked the 50th anniversary of Mohonk Mystery Weekends, which were dreamt up to lure guests during the resort’s low post-holiday, winter season. Edward Gorey created the art for the first event, titled “The Dead of Winter,” featuring a bat wheeling ominously above two bundled figures.
We arrived on a Friday afternoon, driving through the snowy Shawangunk Mountains to find Mohonk Lake frozen solid under a bright blue February sky. Our bags were whisked away, and we were handed a black envelope sealed in crimson wax and stamped with a Gothic “M.” Inside, we found an invitation on aged parchment, summoning us to the residence of Kent and Miriam Ladue for an evening in the company of the most esteemed mystery authors of our age.
Thrilled, we headed to our room, down corridors lined with intricately patterned carpets in jewel tones. Kids in snowpants exited the elevator, followed by a stylish couple carrying ice skates. We marveled at the dark wood paneling, over 2,000 pieces of art, and deep-seated Victorian furniture that was already being filled by guests reading, sipping hot chocolate, or both. Our room had a private balcony and a wood-burning fireplace that my husband immediately started fussing with. Looking out at the snowy mountains, from the romantic vantage point of our room, I thought what a perfect place to kill someone.
The resort has 262 guest rooms and suites, ranging from cozy Victorian Rooms with private balconies to the sprawling Grove Lodge, a 7,000-square-foot, two-story retreat with six rooms and stone fireplaces—ideal for a family gathering or group of friends with shared criminal interests. Mohonk’s calendar runs year-round with a devoted lineup of specialty weekends: a Hiker’s Holiday in fall foliage season; Disco Getaway; Wine Weekends with tastings and cellar tours; Wellness Weeks built around yoga, meditation, and spa immersion; a Crossword Puzzle Weekend (with puzzles designed by Will Shortz, Puzzle Editor at the New York Times!); and the beloved Hudson Valley Gingerbread Competition.
Murder Mystery Weekend programming is structured around the acts of the play, which unfold across three days in the resort’s historic Parlor, decorated with crimson velvet drapes, an ornate fireplace, Persian rugs, and a grandfather clock. Between performances, guests hunt for clues, mingle with characters, and work an original puzzle hunt designed by Greg Pliska. There’s also a tabletop escape room, live music, and a closing ceremony on Sunday that delivers exactly what it promises: a clean (and often surprising) resolution to the weekend’s mystery.
Before the evening’s first act, we enjoyed freshly baked cookies and seasonal teas in the historic Lake Lounge, where enormous windows framed a sunset over snow-covered pines. Guests gathered at the East Side Fire Pits for campfires and s’mores, buzzing with excitement. Costumes are encouraged, and I spotted full Victorian mourning dresses, top hats, capes, and feathered black fascinators the size of small birds. Tip wore a tweed vest and carried his Moleskine notebook, which was not a costume, just the way my professor dresses on a winter day. I wore my favorite velvet sleepwear, having convinced myself that if your pajamas are velvet, you can wear them out to dinner.
The Parlor was packed. The 50th anniversary show was called “Murder by the Book,” produced by Murder Café and written by Frank Marquette. Before the lights dimmed, I saw fellow mystery-lovers jotting down notes about the set, a lavish living room and library. As Act I was performed—featuring copious clues and props that included a fire poker, menacing cocktails, and a gun on the mantlepiece—the audience was rapt, even gasping when the plot twisted.
We scrawled in our notebooks with the focused intensity of graduate students, enjoying fervent discussions and epic meals in-between. The dining at Mohonk is included in your stay—all meals, non-alcoholic drinks, and gratuities—and the kitchen leaned fully into the theme. Our first dinner arrived with a special “Murder on the Menu” insert stamped with a fingerprint, offering Shadows in the Forest: a roasted wild mushroom and black garlic soup; Midnight Hunt: juniper and rosemary crusted lamb loin with blackberry gastrique; and, for dessert, the appropriately named ‘Death by Chocolate.’
On Saturday morning, Act II escalated magnificently—a blackout, an explosion, a dead man, a woman possessed. During Act III, my husband pressed his notebook into my hands so I could study his diagram of alibi conflicts. “Look,” he whispered. “The timeline doesn’t work.”
He was right. We later compared theories in the mineral pool hot tub, steam rising around us into the cold mountain air, and with the excuse of “mulling over the clues,” I savored a Glass Skin Ritual facial with the gifted Tiffany Herrera—a Korean skincare treatment that sculpts, soothes, and saturates in nutrient-rich luxury.
We hiked along the frozen lakeshore, debating red herrings. Tip was certain the killer was the flamboyant grand dame. I had my money on the jealous protégé. It was deeply pleasurable to be engrossed in a story that didn’t have to do with the fate of our nation. Each time we settled in the Parlor, pencils poised, we grinned at each other and at former strangers. At night, DJ Steve spun Hudson Valley dance music in the Lake Lounge—and we danced the suspense away.
When the killer was finally unmasked in Act IV on Sunday morning, my jaw dropped. Tip said, “of course!” in the slightly aggrieved tone of a man robbed of a correct guess by one crucial piece of misdirection. We had both been spectacularly wrong. On the drive home, winding back down through the Shawangunk Mountains with the valley spread below us, we rehashed every clue we’d missed and agreed that the lamb loin was the finest thing either of us had eaten in recent memory. As we reached the highway, Tip reached over and took my hand.
“Same time next year?” he said.
I was already looking up dates. In a world full of questions, I’ll take every mystery I can find that promises an answer.
If You Go
Mohonk Mountain House’s Mystery Weekend is held annually in late February or early March. Costumes are encouraged but not required. The weekend sells out quickly.
All-inclusive nightly rates start at $1,245 and include all meals, nonalcoholic beverages, and gratuities. The 30,000-square-foot spa offers treatments including the Glass Skin Ritual Collagen Sculpting Facial. Mohonk Mountain House is not part of any points-based loyalty program, but offers packages and deals at mohonk.com. The resort is located at 1000 Mountain Rest Road, New Paltz, New York, approximately 90 miles north of Manhattan.
Plan the Perfect 3-Day Weekend in This Oft-Overlooked Florida Destination
Courtesy of VisitStPeteClearwater.com
https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/florida/the-tampa-bay-area/places/clearwater/experiences/news/how-to-spend-three-perfect-days-in-st-pete-clearwater-florida
Doughnuts with a side of frolicking dolphins, anyone?
Picture soft white sand beaches and glowing sunsets, and you’d be forgiven for thinking I was somewhere in the Caribbean. You might even be surprised to learn I was somewhere where no passport is required to get there: St. Pete-Clearwater, Florida. If you only have three days, here’s how to make the most of them in this oft-overlooked destination.
Day One: Trying My Hand at Sushi Rolling
I had arrived in St. Pete-Clearwater expecting a beautiful beach trip and instead found the kind of place that made me pause and want to text my family: ‘We all need to come here together.’
After an easy half-hour drive from the Tampa airport, I checked into my 16th-floor room with incredible beachfront views at the Wyndham Grand on Clearwater Beach and headed straight to the Pallavi Luxury Spa for a hot stone massage and pure relaxation (a must for weary travelers looking to unwind).
That same evening, I tried my hand at sushi-rolling at Ocean Hai, the Wyndham’s on-site Asian fusion restaurant, where each dish is thoughtfully curated and prepared by the Executive Chef Nana Darkwah. The “Sushi and Sips” experience offers an intimate class in the art of sushi-rolling and is only one of the many experiences offered by Wyndham.
Day Two: Welcome to Little Greece
The next morning, I traveled up the coast to Tarpon Springs, which felt as though I’d somehow transported myself to a mini Greece. Sponge divers called this charming town home in the 1900s, and it has since grown into the largest Greek community in the United States. If headed to Tarpon, don’t miss buying a sponge at one of the many adorable shops, and make sure to stay for lunch at Hellas. This third-generation Greek restaurant and bakery offers an authentic cultural experience shaped by generations of family recipes and delectable pastries.
After lunch, I walked off the meal at Dunedin, where I experienced a custom candle-making experience at Sea Love before taking in happy hour at Florida’s oldest microbrewery with a Scottish twist, Dunedin Brewery. The night was capped off with a fresh seafood spread at Bob Heilmans Beachcomber and the best key lime pie I had all trip.
Courtesy of VisitStPeteClearwater.com
Day Three: Doughnuts with a Side of Dolphins
On my last morning in St. Pete-Clearwater, I enjoyed an easy walk down the coast and found the most incredible donuts I’ve ever seen at Parlor Doughnuts, where flavors like Campfire and Maple Bacon await. Afterwards. I boarded a boat for an afternoon spent amongst dolphins swimming alongside us in the bay.
Lunch that day was at Crabby’s Dockside, and if you’re looking for fresh crab legs, this is the place to get them. Dinner took me to Book + Bottle, where coffee, wine, and books converge for the ideal hangout. A perfect dinner at The Crane soon followed with some evening shuffleboard that topped off a fun-filled day.
Too often, travelers think they need to venture abroad for an experience that feels unique and far from home. But down in Florida, in St. Pete-Clearwater, I found myself awed by this beautiful destination. Between the food, the history, and the wealth of experiences, this is the sort of place that feels further than it is, and well worth the trip to get there.
DUHC&S | Strategic Hospitality Consulting & Advisory
We transform hospitality and tourism businesses through strategic solutions, operational efficiency, and comprehensive renovation. With over 40 years of experience working with brands like Hilton, Hyatt, Sheraton, and Sonesta, we enhance asset value and profitability through:
*Operational excellence and brand standards (GSI +90%)
*Market penetration and commercial strategies
*Key partnerships and disruptive innovation
*Hotel openings and repositioning
Proven results :
✅ 48% GOP |
✅ +120% asset valuation growth
✅ Successful projects across 6 Latin American countries
🔹 Let's connect :
📩 Email: diurugeles@gmail.com
🎥 YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@DUHC-S
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diur_2000/
https://viajes-noticias-duhospitality.blogspot.com
https://viajes-duhospitality.blogspot.com
https://travel-duhospitality.blogspot.com
Disclaimer
DUHC&S shares this information for educational and informational purposes only. The news articles reproduced here are sourced from public and recognized media outlets. We are not the original authors of this content but rather distributors of it. All credits go to the original sources cited in each article. If you are the legitimate owner of any material and wish to have it modified or removed, please contact us immediately at diurugeles@gmail.com, and we will address your request promptly.
Comments
Post a Comment