Hello and welcome to this episode of the Times Tech podcast, where each week we unpack how technology is reshaping business, culture and everyday life. I'm Katie Prescott sitting here in the city, the city of London, and a very, very

happy New Year to you. I hope you had a fantastic Christmas break if you were lucky enough to have one,

and you got all the gadgets that you wanted in your stocking. So on the random end of presents,

I dodged giving my kids any tech this year, and my daughter's got stick in sets instead real ones which have been

keeping us all entertained as we try and work out what they like to eat i hope other kids got

luckier with their parents but speaking of unwrapping presents 2026 is shaping up to offer lots more

gifts in tech and i was thinking the other day, reflecting on the year,

just gone. And believe it or not, it is only just over three years since the launch of

chat GPT, which propelled us really into this new era of advanced AI. And that has just

upended everything. I joined the times just before this all started. And I do feel very lucky to be

on the tech beat,

following the twists and turns of it, and meeting some of the larger-than-life characters

that the sector seems to attract.

So we thought on today's episode as a good way to start the new year, we'd gaze into our crystal ball

and ask what the year ahead really holds. And what better way to do that than to speak to

stalwarts of the venture capital industry, the people who place bets on which tech and which

tech companies are going to be the stars of the future. So by now, you may have picked up that you're

not hearing the dulcet tones of my co-hosts Danny Fawkeson. He is still

enjoying a well-earned winter break, but we will be hearing from a recent chat that he had with

an investor John Callahan of True Ventures based in Silicon Valley that has funded companies such

as Blue Sky. And I am joined in the studio today by Hannah Seale from Index Ventures, the

Transatlantic Fund,

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