183: How The Future Of Work Will Look By 2035 (And It’s Closer Than You Think) | Thiago Da Costa
Release Date:
July 1, 2025
Release Date: June 24
Everyone’s talking about AI—but few are actually using it well.
In this episode, Damon Lembi sits down with Thiago Da Costa, AI visionary and founder of Datagrid, to unpack the real impact AI is having on work today. From replacing repetitive tasks to redesigning how companies hire, execute, and scale—Thiago shares how forward-thinking leaders can harness AI to reclaim time, unlock efficiency, and build the future of work.
From building physics engines for movies like Avatar to selling his startup to Autodesk and now leading Datagrid, Thiago offers both technical insight and human wisdom for anyone navigating the AI revolution.
What You’ll Learn:
Why Thiago says AI is underhyped—and what most leaders are missing
The shift from hiring humans to hiring intelligent agents
How AI is changing product, content, customer success, and hiring
Why “agent architects” will be the next critical role inside every company
What great AI implementation looks like at non-tech companies
How to use AI as your “auto-complete for thinking”
What to look for in talent in the age of AI
How leaders can free up 5+ hours a day through agentic design
Why grit and energy beat credentials in AI-native hiring
What the world could look like by 2035—and how to start now
In This Episode:
00:00 – Why every junior is now a senior with AI
01:30 – AI is underhyped: usage is far behind potential
03:00 – Infrastructure gaps: what’s holding mass adoption back
04:00 – Voice, video, and the next interface shift
06:00 – Replacing work with intelligence: what it means
07:30 – Thiago’s origin: Brazil, physics, and Avatar
09:00 – Starting a company and learning the hard way
10:30 – The one person who believed in him
12:00 – Building a CAD platform in the browser
14:00 – What it felt like to be acquired by Autodesk
16:00 – Driving cloud transformation inside a legacy org
18:00 – What inefficiency really looks like at scale
20:00 – How Datagrid replaces repetitive ops with agents
22:00 – Why "agent architect" is the next must-hire
24:00 – Grit + curiosity = your most valuable employee
26:00 – Why small teams can now outpace the giants
28:00 – Where leaders should start with AI today
30:00 – Content, SEO, and how to really use LLMs
32:00 – Real example: AI agent handling shipping and tracking
34:00 – The three-year vision: free up 5+ hours/day
36:00 – What the world could look like in 2035
38:00 – One lesson for every founder: aim higher
40:00 – Damon’s challenge: share this with a future founder
About Thiago:
Thiago Da Costa is a serial entrepreneur, product visionary, and AI futurist. After launching and selling his first startup to Autodesk—where he helped lead the company’s transition to the cloud—Thiago founded Datagrid, an AI platform that turns operational work into intelligent agents. A self-taught technologist with a background in physics and computer graphics, Thiago is pioneering the future of work—where software doesn't just support humans, it works like one.
