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.
State of AI
The state of AI, monthly, with receipts.
A monthly report on where AI stands, written for people who run companies rather than people who follow the industry. Each edition covers what shipped and what it costs, what businesses are getting out of it, where it broke, the money behind it, the rules taking effect, and what an operator should do about any of it, with every number linked to a primary source.
- Published
- Monthly
- Sources
- Primary, linked
- Archive
- 3 editions
Archive
Earlier editions
Every edition stays published with its date and its receipts.
September 2026
Covering August: the API market repriced three times in four weeks with dates attached, both frontier labs paused or gated capability on cyber risk, the implementation layer became an asset class, and the approval gate got measured.
August 2026
Frontier prices hit 2026 lows while capacity stayed rationed, four surveys put receipts on the deploy-vs-outcome gap, and every major lab published an agent-security incident report.
Method
How this report is made
Every edition goes through the same three steps.
OP 010
Gather the month
Three inputs, every month: what happened, checked against primary sources; the running notes from real implementation work; and fresh research on prices, adoption data, incidents, and regulation.
OP 020
Check every claim
Claims that can’t be traced to a source get cut, not softened. Charts only carry numbers a primary source stands behind.
OP 030
Publish with receipts
Editions are scheduled for the first weekday of each month, and each one covers the month before it. The receipts at the end list every source with its date and link.
The October 2026 edition was an exception to that schedule. It came out early, on September 27, and covers September 1 through 27.
Conversations are always free.
If an edition raises a question about your own operation, tell us what you’re trying to do better, and we’ll tell you whether AI can move it.