Let's address the elephant in the boardroom: Choosing an AI platform right now is a nightmare. The marketplace dynamics are unlike anything we've ever View this email in your browser

The Weekly AI Briefing

🧑‍🏫 Latest AI thoughts, tools, and news from unburdn The Main Idea: Let's address the elephant in the boardroom: Choosing an AI platform right now is a nightmare. The marketplace dynamics are unlike anything we've ever seen. I’m going to give you a hot take. It’s a guess—but it’s an educated one based on what I’m seeing in C-suites every week. Distribution is going to win. We can’t call the race yet, but the chances that we wake up in two years and read that OpenAI is bankrupt (or irrelevant) are increasing by the minute. Remember 23andMe? Massive hype, incredible promises, lots of data... and now a cautionary tale. Here is the reality of corporate inertia: As a consumer, you might buy an iPhone but refuse to switch to Android even if it’s "better." It's a hassle. In the corporate world? Switching platforms is nearly impossible. Startups like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI (Grok) are building revolutionary tech. But decision-makers want the path of least resistance. They want security, privacy, and stability. They don't want to entrust their deepest secrets to a company that might burn out in 18 months. That’s why the giants—Google and Microsoft—are dangerous. Google: They have a business that pays the bills regardless of AI, and Gemini is catching up fast. Microsoft: Their tech is often miserable. Seriously, using their admin panels makes me cringe; it is a friction-heavy, worst-in-class experience. But they have the distribution. They are already on every desk. The best technology doesn't always win. The technology that is easiest to access usually does. Here's the play: Don't marry a model: Pick a lane (Microsoft, Google, or OpenAI) and get moving, but don't sign a ten-year vow. Production over perfection: Get tools into your team's hands now. Speed matters more than having the "perfect" LLM. You already have Shadow AI! Keep lines in the water: Re-evaluate the landscape quarterly. A wild card could drop at any moment. PS: Keep reading for hot-takes on headlines, AI tools, and a personal story + pic

📰 AI News Worth Knowing

📦 Amazon Enters the Chat: Amazon (AWS) is flexing its muscles. As I mentioned above, distribution wins wars, and nobody has distribution rails like AWS. If they get serious, they become an instant enterprise heavyweight. Read Here 🏛️ No More Excuses: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just released a concrete plan to integrate AI into federal workflows. Let’s be real: if the federal bureaucracy can figure out how to implement AI efficiently, your nimble private company has absolutely no excuse for stagnation. Read Here 💻 "Vibe Coding" is Here: A new trend is emerging where non-technical staff use AI to build working apps just by describing the "vibe" or function in plain English. This is the "citizen developer" dream coming true. Let your marketing manager try to build that internal tool they’ve been begging IT for—they might just pull it off. Read Here

🛠️ AI Tools You Need to Try

🗣️ Wispr Flow: Finally, speech-to-text that works the way we wish Siri actually did. It’s seamless and incredibly accurate. Read Here ⚡ Google Antigravity: One for my deep-tech friends. This is a new "agentic" development platform designed to stop the context switching and let you operate at a higher, task-oriented level. Read Here 🧰 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[Subscribe

From the Field: 🐱 The Simple Life

Travel has slowed down for the holidays. On one hand, it's nice not to live out of a suitcase. On the other, I love a fast pace and I'm getting a little stir-crazy. I'm trying to take a lesson from our overweight, adorable cat here. She ignored the expensive toys and made a cave out of a simple Amazon bag. Sometimes in business, we overcomplicate the solution. We look for the shiny, complex tech when the "Amazon bag"—the simple, readily available tool—is actually the perfect fit. 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