October 2026
Covering September through the 27th: lower model prices, agent risks, applications a business can own, and practical knowledge people can use and share.
Resources
Learn enough to act, even if you never hire us.
Everything here is free to read and watch. Start with the latest State of AI report, then take the reading list that fits your organization. Manufacturing comes first because our deepest work so far has been inside West Michigan manufacturers.
State of AI
The monthly report
Each month we check that month’s AI news against primary sources and write down what it means for a business. Every number links to its source.
All editions and how the report is madeStart here
Two reading lists
Each list is in the order we’d read it, and every piece carries its publish date.
For manufacturers
These cover how plant systems hand each other facts, how to test AI against a physical process, how to choose the first project, and what has to be in place before an agent touches real work.
For every other organization
These cover what an agent is, which actions need a person’s approval, what a system costs to keep running, why agents drift without a maintained standard, and how to map a workflow before anything gets built.
What Agentic AI Actually Is: A Practical Definition
Gate What Your Agent Can't Undo
Your Agent Isn't Real Until It Survives Its Own Maintenance Bill
You're using agentic AI wrong.
How to Map One Workflow Before You Add an AI Agent
For non-profits, add Own the Donor Record, Not the Dashboard and Adoption Is Not Capability: What Your Nonprofit's AI Number Actually Measures.
Topics
Reading by topic
Most of what we write comes back to a handful of ideas. Each group collects the pieces on one of them.
Capture the knowledge
A lot of what a system needs to know sits with the people who do the work. These pieces cover writing it down in a form people and software can both use.
Own the system
Your records, your definitions and the applications built on them should stay yours when a vendor or a model changes.
Gates and evidence
Decide which actions need a person to approve them, and ask for proof before any piece of work counts as done.
Count the net
Review, corrections, upkeep and people’s attention all belong in the cost of running a system, next to the model bill.
Pick the first project
Start with one process your team already understands and a result somebody can check.
Videos
Three videos to start with
The first is for manufacturers, the second explains how an agent works, and the third covers which actions need a person’s approval.
All videos
Commentary
Holden’s commentary
These are Holden’s opinion pieces from July and August 2026, dated and kept apart from the field guides.
Commentary videosConversations are always free.
If one of these pieces sounds like a problem you have, tell us which process it’s in, and we’ll tell you whether it’s worth working on.