From Vector Databases to Knowledge Engines: The Next Layer of AI
From AI + a16z by a16z
May 5, 2026 · 46 min · Episode 96
About this episode
Peter Levine speaks with Ash Ashutosh about the transition from vector databases to knowledge engines and the evolution of AI systems.
Peter Levine speaks with Ash Ashutosh, CEO of Pinecone, about the launch of Nexus and the shift from vector databases to knowledge engines. As agents become the primary users of software, they discuss why traditional retrieval systems break down and how AI systems need to evolve to support machine-to-machine interactions. The conversation explores how agents currently spend most of their time retrieving and reasoning over data, why that approach is inefficient, and how moving reasoning closer to the data can dramatically improve performance, accuracy, and cost. Ash also explains how Pinecone is rethinking the stack for agentic applications, introducing new abstractions, query languages, and developer workflows.
People in this episode
Host: Peter Levine
Guest: Ash Ashutosh
Topics covered
- vector databases
- knowledge engines
- AI systems
- machine-to-machine interactions
- data retrieval
- agentic applications
Keywords
- vector databases
- knowledge engines
- AI
- data retrieval
- Pinecone
- agents
- machine-to-machine
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Pinecone
Products: Nexus
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