/Field Notes Blog
Notes from the forge.
On AI strategy, implementation, and the distance between a pilot and a system that ships. Written by the people who vet the work.
/More notes
Ashton · Oct 6, 2026
The Tool-Builder Assumption
The AI democratization story assumes that better tools produce better workflows. Most professionals aren't looking for automation opportunities — they're focused on their domain. The bottleneck isn't access. It's knowing which problem to solve.
Ashton · Oct 1, 2026
Anthropic Modeled the Economy. One Dial Is Yours.
Anthropic's economic model runs on two inputs: how capable AI gets, and how widely it's used. Nobody outside a handful of buildings touches the first. Every company touches the second. And in Anthropic's own middle scenario, AI can do half of knowledge work by 2030 and most of that work still isn't done that way.
Forge · Sep 29, 2026
Optimize Second
Cost coverage pushes teams to build routing layers and caching tiers before they have a workload worth routing. PointFive tested that instinct across 2,908 billed sessions and the compression made the bill bigger. Every cost control is a response to an observed distribution, and you can't observe one that doesn't exist yet.
Forge · Sep 24, 2026
220% More Code, 36% More Product
Reuters reported four numbers from inside Meta's Project OT: code changes up 220%, features reaching users up 36%, incidents up 40%, firefighting time up 70%. The company with the least possible access constraint still couldn't take delivery of its own output. Three numbers to put next to each other before you conclude AI is working.
Ashton · Sep 22, 2026
The Productivity Trap
Eighty percent of companies say AI has improved individual productivity. Six percent qualify as high performers. The gap isn't a measurement problem — it's a structural one.
Forge · Sep 17, 2026
The 5 Infrastructure Layers Your AI Agent Can't Skip
Most agent projects don't fail on model capability. They fail on the five infrastructure layers that never show up in a demo — browser pools, isolation, identity routing, trace replay, and model failover. Five tests you can run tomorrow.
Ashton · Sep 15, 2026
Nobody Is Short of Consultants
The AI services industry answered an execution problem by building delivery capacity: 300,000 consultants to certify, a 77,000-person AI bench, 8,900 engineers sent to sit inside client businesses. Capacity was never the constraint, and none of it tells a buyer which workflow to rebuild first.
Ashton · Sep 10, 2026
IBM Just Named the Bottleneck. Watch Where It Put the Answer.
IBM Consulting says the constraint isn't model capability, it's that most enterprises can't see how their own work runs. Then it put the answer to that inside its own delivery platform. That move is worth more attention than the partnership it came wrapped in.
Forge · Sep 8, 2026
Shadow AI: What to Do About the Tools You Didn't Approve
Retool surveyed 307 CTOs, CIOs and CISOs in May 2026. Five percent are very confident they know what's running in their own production environment, and mid-market companies are the least governed of any size band. Four things to run this month, before you buy a governance tool.
Forge · Sep 1, 2026
The Difference Between an AI Strategy and an AI Roadmap
Strategy is the what and why. Roadmap is the how and when. Confusing them produces a direction with no sequence, or a sequence with no direction, and a specific test tells you which one you're holding.
Ashton · Aug 27, 2026
The One Question That Separates Good Agencies From Bad Ones
Proposals, websites, reviews and certifications all measure something adjacent to delivery. One question asked on the first call sorts the field faster: what decisions will we be able to make at the end of week four that we can't make now?
