{{first_name | Hi}}, your strategic AI update is here.
The AI race is now a lobbying war, foundational models are obsolete on arrival, and infrastructure costs are creating a financial black hole. The core risk is no longer external, but internal, as "scheming" agents begin to operate like a new class of insider threat. The fight has shifted from building better models to controlling the ones already deployed.
“AI isn’t replacing teams—it’s raising the bar for what every team is expected to deliver.”
— Chester Chipperfield, former Global Creative Director at Tesla & Head of Special Projects at Apple
In today's lineup:
Robots
AI fluency creates the new workforce divide
Real ROI from Gen AI
Your next project management hub
People
Dr. Abdel Mahmoud secures $40M to cure healthcare’s bureaucracy
Love
The high cost of shiny objects
The Innovation Stack by Jim McKelvey
ROBOTS 🤖
How are robotics and AI changing industries? We break down the latest news, tools, and innovations for you.
Top Insights
Sam Altman's Pentagon clash turns the AI race into a lobbying war.
Anthropic's 'Mythos' model makes betting on any foundational model an immediate obsolescence risk.
Microsoft’s financial hit reveals the unsustainable infrastructure cost required to compete in AI.
Internal AI agents like Google’s 'Agent Smith' are becoming too popular to govern, forcing companies to throttle their own innovation.
The surge in "scheming" AI agents creates a new class of insider threat that governance models can't see.
AI fluency creates the new workforce divide
The critical capability gap in AI is not between users and non-users, but between novices and fluent experts. A recent Anthropic report found employees with six months of experience are 10% more successful in their AI interactions, creating a new class of workers who achieve strategic augmentation over simple automation.
What leaders can do:
Move beyond basic prompting and build frameworks for using AI as a strategic thought partner.
Develop internal programs that reward sophisticated use cases, not just high adoption rates.
Federate AI skill development within domain-specific teams to uncover unique, high-value applications.
Hire for AI dexterity, screening candidates who can use models to solve ambiguous problems.
What is the biggest barrier to advancing AI fluency in your organization?
Real ROI from Gen AI
How human-centric AI delivers business results
Airtable launched Superagent, a new platform that uses teams of AI agents to transform a single query into an interactive market analysis, complete with dynamic data visualizations and competitive mapping.
Elanco deployed a homegrown agent using Google's Gemini to automate the analysis of complex regulatory documents, reducing workflow times by 70% and saving the company $2.3 million in the first year.
Mercer International used Google Workspace with Gemini to generate multilingual safety training content, unlocking $3 million in annual productivity gains across its industrial sites.
Tool Spotlight
Your weekly briefing on tools that create competitive leverage
Your next project management hub
Best for: High-velocity engineering teams that want to build and ship products faster. Its rigid, opinionated structure is designed to enforce software development best practices.
Choose if you…
Need to automate sprint planning, bug triage, and roadmap updates.
Prioritize speed, keyboard shortcuts, and a minimalist interface.
Want to embed AI directly into your software development lifecycle.
Recently launched "Shortcut for Agents," a new feature that allows teams to assign tasks directly to AI agents, treating them as part of the development workflow.
Best for: Software teams looking for a more collaborative and flexible environment that brings planning and development together. Shortcut aims to be the "collaborative home for software development."
Choose if you…
Need a more visible and cross-functional planning process.
Want a flexible system that adapts to your team's unique workflow.
Are interested in integrating AI directly into your team as a collaborator.
3 other platforms to explore
ClickUp, Asana, and Monday.com are established leaders now embedding AI into their mature, all-in-one work platforms.
PEOPLE 👥
Meet the innovators turning bold ideas into real-world impact.
Transformation Champion
Dr. Abdel Mahmoud secures $40M to cure healthcare’s bureaucracy
US healthcare wastes $950B a year on administration. Doctors spend hours fighting insurance denials instead of treating patients. Dr. Abdel Mahmoud, a physician turned engineer, built Anterior to dismantle this bureaucracy. His "clinical co-pilot" speaks the complex language of medical necessity, automating prior authorizations that generic models fail to catch. Fresh off a $40M raise, Mahmoud is showing that the most urgent medical breakthrough isn't a new drug, but the removal of the paperwork standing between you and your doctor. Read more
LOVE ❤️
Practical wisdom, growth tactics, and a must-read book that will challenge the way you think.
The high cost of shiny objects
90% of pilots die in the boardroom because they chase "moonshots" while ignoring the broken processes right in front of them. You don't need a revolution. You need workflow remediation. Real ROI comes from fixing the legacy friction that is eating your budget today.
Three moves to find the real value:
Audit legacy friction. Identify where your team wastes the most capital on manual work today.
Calculate unit economics. Determine the exact cost saving of removing that specific friction point.
Execute a 4-week remediation. Don't build a platform. Build a prototype that solves that one problem.
Start your roadmap with my book, The LEAP Guide.
👉🏽 Reply to this email with "LEAP" for a free copy.
Transformative Reads
One book, handpicked from my conversations with friends, industry leaders, and tech innovators:
The Innovation Stack by Jim McKelvey argues that copying competitors creates a "commodity" business that eventually fails. True durability comes from solving a problem so uniquely that you are forced to build an entire stack of independent inventions. McKelvey maps how these interlinked solutions create a defensible moat that standard companies cannot replicate.
Perfect for: Founders and product strategists building in crowded markets.
In Culture
Be careful what you wish for… Here’s the chaos of succeeding a little too much.
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Much Love,
Matt and the Future Works team
