I practice (and preach) "Brute Force Augmentation"—taking off-the-shelf tools and forcing them to act like a highly specialized executive team. View this email in your browser

The Weekly AI Briefing

🧑‍🏫 Latest AI thoughts, tools, and news from unburdn Most leaders think "integrating AI" means a six- or seven- figure custom software build. It doesn’t. I practice (and preach) "Brute Force Augmentation"—taking off-the-shelf tools and forcing them to act like a highly specialized executive team. Here is exactly how I use five tools to win every day: The Bot Squad (Custom GPTs/Gems): Think of these as stored sets of instructions. I don’t "chat" with AI; I delegate to specific personas. My Context Bot knows our history and pricing better than I do. My CEO Advisor "red teams" my bad ideas, and my MeBot takes a messy voice-to-text brain dump and turns it into a polished email that sounds exactly like me. Here’s a link to a Loom video showing how to do it: VIDEO LINK NotebookLM (The Synthesizer): This is my research librarian. I dump massive PDFs, YouTube videos, or whitepapers into it, and it creates an instant "brain" around that data. I recently used it to synthesize a complex AI whitepaper into personalized advisory emails for our clients in seconds. Granola (The Memory): I never take manual notes anymore. Granola "listens" to my meetings and stores the logic. Weeks later, I can ask it, "What specific point did I want to open with for this client?" and it gives me the exact bullet points. It makes me look like I have the best memory on the planet. It saves me 5-10 hours every week. WisprFlow (The Speed): I’ve effectively retired my keyboard. I use this for voice-to-text because it’s 3x faster than typing (150 wpm vs. 40 wpm). It formats everything perfectly, so I don't even have to "clean it up" with AI afterward. Gamma (The Designer): This is my on-call visual designer. I feed it a rough outline, and it builds a world-class slide deck in three minutes. I focus on the strategy; Gamma focuses on making it look like I spent a week on the design. Here’s the play: Stop "Chatting": Identify one repetitive task and build a "Custom GPT" or “Gem” or "Project" for it today. Give it your context once so you never have to repeat yourself again. Talk, Don't Type: Download a voice-to-text tool like WisprFlow. If you can speak your responses, you reclaim 60% of your "email time" immediately. Audit Your Sources: Next time you're sent a 20-page report, don't read it. Dump it into NotebookLM and ask: "How does this specifically affect my bottom line?" PS: Keep reading for hot-takes on headlines, AI tools, and a personal story + pic

📰 AI News Worth Knowing

🎧 Talk to Anyone, Anywhere: Google Gemini just unlocked live speech-to-speech translation through your headphones. Whether you're in a global board meeting or traveling, you can hear real-time translations of conversations and lectures directly in your ear. Read Here 🇺🇸 The Feds Enter the AI Race: The Department of Energy is teaming up with 24 organizations for the "Genesis Mission." It’s a historic move to use AI for national security and energy innovation, signaling that the U.S. government is finally moving from "regulation only" to "active innovation." Read Here 🍫 Why AI Shouldn't Run the Breakroom (Yet): In a hilarious (and expensive) experiment, Anthropic’s Claude was put in charge of an office vending machine and managed to lose hundreds of dollars. It’s a perfect reminder: AI is brilliant at logic, but sometimes lacks the "common sense" of a teenager behind a counter. Read Here 📊 The "Shiny Object" Reality Check: The 2025 State of Consumer AI report shows that while everyone is "using" AI, very few are "mastering" it. Retention for flashy tools is low because users haven't built workflow habits. The win for your business isn't more subscriptions—it's actual department-specific training (like what we do here at Unburdn! 😜). Read Here 🧐 The Year of Proof: Stanford experts predict that 2026 will be the year of "rigor and utility." The industry is tired of the hype; businesses are now demanding real ROI and proof that these tools move the needle. Don't get lost in the "tsunami of noise." Read Here

🛠️ AI Tools You Need to Try

📄 Mistral OCR 3: If you’ve ever tried to feed a complex PDF into an AI and gotten gibberish back, you need this. Mistral is the current king of PDF-to-text conversion. It reads documents with incredible accuracy, ensuring your AI isn't hallucinating based on a bad scan. Read Here[Subscribe

From the Field: 🧴 Skin in the Game… My AI Medical Experiment

I travel a ton, which means my skin is constantly battling different climates, airplane air, and the stress of a 7-day work week. Recently, I developed a stubborn rash on my face that made me look like a teenager again. Instead of waiting months for a dermatologist, I decided to be my own guinea pig. I uploaded a macro photo to Gemini Pro, gave it my full medical history, lifestyle habits, and even the ingredients in my soap via voice-to-text. I told it to "think like a board-certified dermatologist." It diagnosed a specific fungus fueled by the dry Denver air and—ironically—my own lotion. It suggested a simple regimen of specific soaps and sprays from Amazon. Two weeks later? It’s almost gone. The Lesson: While I don't recommend AI for life-or-death decisions (it might tell you to mix bleach and vinegar, folks!), it can provide a lot of value when you “MAFO”. This is the face of a guy who travels too much and is ignorant enough to use AI as his doctor. 🤪 Thanks for reading. 🙏 Copyright (C) 2025 AI for the Rest of Us LLC dba Unburdn. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe