In this episode of Data Day, I sit down with Bhaskar Sunkara, co-founder and former CTO of AppDynamics, to unpack the evolution from application performance monitoring to AI-driven business analytics.

We go deep on how AppDynamics redefined monitoring by focusing on business transactions instead of infrastructure metrics, why self-serve was a game-changing GTM move, and the behind-the-scenes story of their near-IPO turned Cisco acquisition.

Then we shift to what comes next. Bhaskar shares how his new company is rethinking analytics with always-on agents that detect, explain, and act on business signals before you even ask the question. We dig into what actually makes AI systems useful in production, where coding agents are already replacing engineering work, and why the real bottleneck has shifted from writing code to designing the right system.

If you’re building in AI, data, or modern SaaS, this is a clear look at where things are going and what actually matters.