The company that banned AI
A well-known American clothing brand just banned AI. All of it. Over 2,000 employees. One approved tool: Microsoft Copilot chat. No Claude Code, no Claude, no ChatGPT, no Cursor, no agents. Nothing. No AI — for anyone. I heard this from Maya (name changed for privacy), a senior software engineer there. At a recent company […]
Your colleagues hating AI is good news
“I’ve become rather unpopular because of AI.” That’s what Marcus (name changed for privacy) told me recently. He works in credit risk modeling at a large, well-known bank. He joined our challenge, started learning AI, and did what enthusiastic people do: he shared what he was learning and the wins he was having. His department […]
AI won’t replace you. These people will.
I’ve been running the AI Project Challenge for 3 months. Recently we tested Instagram ads to reach new audiences. We filled an entire cohort with 20-year-olds. (No surprise — that’s where they hang out.) When I got on the call with them, I was struck by their drive. These aren’t career-switchers trying to stay relevant. […]
Two myths about LLMs
Today I’m going to bust two myths about LLMs. The first one you’ve probably heard before. The second one — chances are it’s going to surprise you. Myth 1: LLMs think. Ask an LLM what the tallest mountain is. It pauses. Then it responds: “The tallest mountain in the world is Mount Everest…” Looks like […]
Everyone is learning AI Engineering. Are you?
Our AI Project Challenge is growing in popularity. Almost every week I find myself launching a new cohort. And I’m learning a lot about the trajectory of the industry from our participants. If you’re on the fence about learning AI Engineering, here’s something worth seeing. People from all areas of tech are jumping on this […]
Caching with LLMs
One of the first questions I get from new AI builders is always the same. “How much is this going to cost me?” So let me show you something from my own account. Two weeks of building and testing LLMs. Running queries, experimenting with models, and recording tutorials. Total spend: 33 cents. Most days were […]
400 Million Companies
There are 400 million small and mid-size businesses in the world. Four. Hundred. Million. 76% reported they are either actively using or exploring AI. (PayPal research) But don’t let that number mislead you. Here’s what it really means: Trying ChatGPT. Piloting automations. Seeing what’s possible. I.e. dipping their toes in the water. Only about 5% […]
RAG in 3 steps
I’m going to mix it up a bit and give you something more technical this time. My 3 progressive steps to learning RAG: Most people building AI apps treat LLM context like a filing cabinet. You open it, dump everything in, and hope the AI finds what it needs. That works. Until it doesn’t. The […]
The AI Project Challenge
I had a call this week with Maya. (name changed for privacy) She’s a supply chain data analyst at Nordstrom. Been in the role about a year. A few weeks ago, her manager connected Claude Code to their database through an MCP server. Now, dashboards that used to take a week to build manually in […]
Stop waiting for your lucky break
You’ve heard the formula: Luck = Opportunity + Preparation. Whoever came up with that was onto something. But most people focus on the wrong half. They wait for the opportunity. The perfect job posting. The right connection. Here’s the thing: you can’t control when opportunity shows up. You can’t control when a company decides to […]