From Selling Tequila to AI Agents, with Sergio Khoury
What Actually Changes When Technology Evolves
AI doesn’t replace work.
It changes why we work.
A few weeks ago, I sat down with a Sergio, who’s been building for almost two decades.
Before iPhones.
Before WhatsApp.
Before “AI-native” was even a concept.
Back when an online order meant an email landing on a BlackBerry and someone calling the restaurant to read it out loud.
That conversation stayed with me.
Not because of the technology.
But because of what it revealed about work, burnout, and purpose in the age we’re entering.
From tools to outcomes
The core shift we kept circling back to was simple.
People no longer want tools.
They want outcomes.
Restaurants don’t want dashboards.
They want orders handled.
Founders don’t want workflows.
They want fewer decisions.
That’s why AI agents matter.
Not because they’re impressive.
But because they remove friction.
When ordering food via WhatsApp is faster than opening an app, something fundamental has changed.
The best technology now feels invisible.
Burnout is not a failure signal
At some point, every long-term builder hits the wall.
Not “close to burnout”.
Actual burnout.
The kind that forces you to ask what you’re really building.
And what you’re sacrificing for it.
That question followed me all year.
Shutting down something you poured years into creates brutal clarity.
So does watching an industry you know deeply get rewritten by AI.
Burnout isn’t about working too much.
It’s about working without alignment.
The real question AI raises
We’re becoming dramatically more productive.
In some roles, 2x already feels conservative.
The uncomfortable question isn’t what AI will replace.
It’s what humans will do with the time it gives back.
Most people don’t want a life of nothing.
They want a life of choice.
Choice to work.
Choice to create.
Choice to slow down.
That’s a very different definition of success than the one many of us inherited.
There is no balance. Only seasons.
One idea I keep coming back to is this.
There is no perfect balance.
Only seasons.
Seasons of obsession.
Seasons of rebuilding.
Seasons of family.
Seasons of health.
The mistake is believing you can maximize everything at once.
This year taught me something simple and uncomfortable.
Winning at work while losing at health or relationships is still a loss.
What still can’t be automated
AI will write faster than us.
Code faster than us.
Design faster than us.
What it still can’t do:
Carry lived context.
Build trust through shared struggle.
Replace real human connection.
And interestingly, as AI content floods everything, human effort becomes more valuable, not less.
We admire what is hard.
Not what is instant.
A quieter definition of success
If I had to reduce the whole conversation to one line, it would be this:
Success is the freedom to choose how you spend your time, and who you spend it with.
Not hustle for its own sake.
Not productivity as identity.
Just clarity about what matters in this season.
We keep building.
Hopefully, with more intention now.
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