Andy Beach was the CTO of AI for Microsoft in their Media and Entertainment business.

He now consults AI startups and is a VC investor at Hallstone, a firm investing in media and tech.

Most people think AI'll be won by the biggest models—OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini. Andy says that’s wrong. The real winners will be the apps built on top.

We talk about what that looks like. Think YouTube and TikTok—they didn’t invent video, they changed how we consume it.

Andy believes AI apps will do the same thing. Not just recommending what to watch, but building your whole day across Netflix, YouTube, and more.

Andy points to companies like Midjourney, Runway, and ElevenLabs. They started as models—but had to become full apps to win.

We also get into the “Mac vs PC” style battle between OpenAI and Anthropic. And why Apple using Gemini is smarter than building its own LLM.

We cover sports including Andy's work on AI with the NBA and Motocross.You'll be amazed at the fan experience AI is gonna allow us.

We also go deep on where the money is going. AI training and licensing could get even bigger

Andy also shares lessons from inside Microsoft. Why they never tried to become a media company like Google.

Finally, we talk about who wins first. It’s not big studios. It’s independent creators. Small teams using AI to make better content, faster.

Special thanks to Peter Csathy for putting Andy on my radar. Peter did a great interview of Andy back in early 2025

Now Please enjoy my conversation with Andy Beach.

Thx!
-Rob