Insights
Perspectives on AI leadership, technology strategy, and building companies that last. From someone who has done it.
Agent sprawl is the new shadow IT. Your business needs a control plane
Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and IBM all shipped agent governance platforms in the last thirty days. Here's why every business will need an agent control plane within twelve months, and what one actually does.
Headless is the new mobile-first. Agents are about to become your biggest user
Box, Zapier, Salesforce and Stripe all said the same thing in April: agents will become the dominant users of software. If your product can only be used through a UI, it cannot be used by them. Here's what to do about it.
Uber burned through its token budget by April. Your business will be next
AI FinOps is following cloud FinOps by about a decade, and the curve is steeper. Token spend is becoming a board issue. Here's why your CFO needs a token budget by Q3, and what one looks like.
Stop counting AI use cases. Redesign three value streams instead
Pilot purgatory has a sequel: use-case purgatory. 47 deployed AI assistants is not a strategy. Here's how to pick three value streams and rebuild them end-to-end, the way the operating model needs to change.
75% of Google's new code is AI-generated. So what?
AI-generated code percentages are vanity metrics. They tell you nothing about whether engineering is delivering more value. Here are the five metrics your board should actually be asking for in 2026.
Most of what you do at work will be automated. The interesting question is what won't
AI handles routine work faster and cheaper than humans. That's settled. The exciting strategic question is where humans are irreplaceable, and how to build your organisation's advantage around those capabilities.
AI is not just for engineering. Every function in your business can use it today
Finance, marketing, sales, legal, customer support, project management. AI tools can improve every business function right now. Here's what actually works in each, and what doesn't yet.
Traditional moats are dissolving. Size and capital no longer protect you
Scale, capital, and headcount used to guarantee dominance. AI is changing the equation. Competitive advantage now flows to the companies that move fastest and adapt smartest, regardless of size.
The dual-stream strategy. Protect your current business while building what replaces it
Every profitable company faces the same question: how do you invest in AI without cannibalising your own product? The answer is a dual-stream approach that protects today's revenue while building tomorrow's advantage.
What two hours with Anthropic's agent team taught me about building AI
Anthropic ran a workshop on their Agent SDK. Five principles emerged that match everything I've seen building production agents — and one that changed how I'll build them next.
You're not a 10x engineer. You're an orchestrator, and that's harder
The best developers aren't writing code faster. They're directing AI agents, making architectural judgements, and maintaining the context that machines can't hold. The role hasn't been eliminated. It's evolved into something more valuable.
AI made developers 19% slower. Here's what they were doing wrong
The most rigorous study on AI coding tools found a surprising result. But the real insight isn't the headline — it's that the gap between using AI and using AI well is enormous, and closeable.
Most companies are adopting AI. Few are adopting it well
84% of organisations have AI tools. A handful are getting transformative results. The difference isn't the technology — it's how it's deployed. Here's what the best teams are doing differently.
The training ladder is broken. And nobody has a plan to fix it
AI is reshaping the junior developer role, and with it, how the next generation of senior engineers gets built. The companies solving this now will have the strongest engineering teams in five years.
Why your AI spend isn't showing up in the numbers
Most AI spend isn't showing up on the P&L yet — but some organisations are seeing transformative returns. The difference isn't the technology. It's the deployment approach, and it's fixable.
Most AI transformations are performance art
Innovation labs and pilot programmes look impressive in quarterly updates. Actual AI transformation looks different. Here's how to move from performative adoption to real production impact.
Shadow AI is your next audit finding
78% of employees are already using AI tools. That's not a problem — it's a signal of demand. Channel it with the right governance framework and you turn a compliance risk into a competitive advantage.
Why 80% of AI projects fail to deliver ROI, and what the 20% do differently
The AI projects that deliver real business impact share specific structural patterns. The technology works. The difference is in how projects are scoped, measured, and governed from day one.
Agentic AI in 2026: what actually works in production
Agentic AI is moving from slides to production. The teams getting it right share specific patterns around scope, tooling, and human oversight. Here's what I've learned building agents that actually ship.
The most important skill in business and life
Many skills matter for success. But the one that separates the best leaders from the rest, especially in the age of AI, is the ability to make good decisions when nobody knows what happens next.
The most powerful yet overlooked tool in a leader's arsenal
Gallup tracked 3,400 employees over two years. Those who received quality recognition were 45% less likely to leave. The tool that produced this result costs nothing and takes ten seconds.
Fractional CTO. Is outsourced technology leadership right for you?
Fractional CTO engagements give you senior technology leadership without the full-time cost. Here's how to structure one that actually delivers.
Does your business need a CTO?
The answer is almost always yes, but not for the reasons most people think. The right technology leadership pays for itself many times over. Here's how to think about it.
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