You’ve been sold the fairy tale: buy an AI tool, flip a switch, watch profits rain from the sky. View this email in your browser

The Weekly AI Briefing

🧑‍🏫 Latest AI thoughts, tools, and news from unburdn Housekeeping: If you want to get started with Unburdn, please let me know ASAP—our schedule is booking out fast. Openings between now and end of November: August. Sold out. September. 8 & 15 October. 6, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31 🎃 November. 3—7, 10, 12, 14, 21, 25

Main Idea

You’ve been sold the fairy tale: buy an AI tool, flip a switch, watch profits rain from the sky. Reality check: the latest MIT analysis shows most companies aren’t getting value because they never learned how to use AI or where it actually fits. The gap isn’t the tech—it’s the learning and workflow piece. When teams go it alone, wins are rare. When they pair training with thoughtful workflow design and bring in pros to build the real systems, wins stack up fast. (Sorry—couldn’t publish without highlighting that) Think of AI like hiring a brilliant intern. If you toss them a company laptop and say “figure it out,” don’t expect miracles. But if you teach them your process, give clear briefs, and plug them into the right steps, they make you faster, cheaper, and better. Companies that try to replace the core of their business with GenAI faceplant. Companies that target fringe, outsource-y work (support, admin processing, standardized dev tasks) rack up ROI.

Here’s the play:

Train first. Build basic fluency in tools like ChatGPT and prompt patterns before you automate anything. Start on the edges. Pick high-volume, standardized work that’s currently outsourced or backlogged. Partner to build. Use experts to turn your wins into durable, auditable workflows—then scale. PS: Keep reading for hot-takes on headlines, AI tools, and a personal story + pic

📰 AI News Worth Knowing

🤖 95% of GenAI pilots deliver zero return (for now). The MIT-backed analysis says the problem isn’t model quality—it’s poor adoption and misuse. Specialized “point tools” underperform; well-trained teams using general tools fare better. Workforce cuts are showing up in non-core functions (support, admin, standardized dev). Read Here 🩺 GPT‑5 just leapfrogged doctors on medical reasoning benchmarks. We’re nearing a world where a clinician not using AI is like a pilot flying without instruments. Expect AI as standard of care support—soon. Read Here 💡 How Googlers actually use AI: creativity > keystrokes. The best gains aren’t just time saved—they’re faster brainstorming, better drafts, and more idea testing. You don’t need code or scary automations for this—just basic AI fluency. Read Here 🧠 Prompt like a pro by understanding “attention.” This plain‑English explainer helps you write prompts that play to how LLMs actually work. Quick read, big payoff in output quality. Read Here 🔎 Deep Research is the new default search. For complex questions and multi‑option comparisons, it beats the old “ten blue links” approach. Try it as your first stop for research. Read Here

🛠️ AI Tools You Need to Try

🧰 Unburdn’s Vault. A curated library of AI tools mapped to Crawl → Walk → Run stages. Great cheat‑sheet for leveling up your team’s stack. Explore Here

📢 Take Action

AI isn’t a magic box—it’s a muscle. Train it, then use it daily. Stop paying for “AI wrappers” that don’t move the needle. Book us with a “Reply” or go here[Subscribe

From the Field: 🚗 Never Write It Off—Try Again, Get Hooked

I wrote off “full self‑driving” as Silicon Valley vapor. Last week I retried it in my wife’s new car; it navigated a construction detour, merged politely, then parallel‑parked—no drama. In twenty minutes my baseline changed: what felt like a party trick became the new normal. Now my German grocery-getter with 603 hp is collecting dust. I’m FSD or GTFO. That’s how adoption really works: skepticism → second try → standard. The business lesson: don’t anchor your opinion to v1. Put a recurring re‑test on the calendar for the tech you’ve shelved. When it crosses the “it just works” line, you want to be the first mover, not the last holdout. 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