The Automat

Field notes from the bleeding edge of business

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Open-Weight Models Grew Up: The Quiet Case for Owning Your Stack

Open-Weight Models Grew Up: The Quiet Case for Owning Your Stack

Open-Weight Models Grew Up: The Quiet Case for Owning Your StackDrew Donaldson
Published on: 24/07/2026

Open-weight models for enterprise now route most tokens at a fraction of the cost. When to own your stack, when to rent frontier APIs.

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Past the Hype Cycle: What AI Is Quietly Good At in 2026

Past the Hype Cycle: What AI Is Quietly Good At in 2026

Past the Hype Cycle: What AI Is Quietly Good At in 2026Drew Donaldson
Published on: 10/07/2026

An anti-hype, anti-doom field report on AI hype vs reality in 2026: where AI quietly earns its keep, where the loud use cases stall, and how to tell them apart.

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The Hardest Part of Agentic AI Isn't Intelligence. It's Plumbing.

The Hardest Part of Agentic AI Isn't Intelligence. It's Plumbing.

The Hardest Part of Agentic AI Isn't Intelligence. It's Plumbing.Drew Donaldson
Published on: 04/07/2026

The hardest part of agentic AI isn't intelligence, it's integration. Why 26% of agent projects die on legacy plumbing, plus auth, state, and the MCP standard.

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88% of Enterprises Use AI. Far Fewer Have Anything to Show for It.

88% of Enterprises Use AI. Far Fewer Have Anything to Show for It.

88% of Enterprises Use AI. Far Fewer Have Anything to Show for It.Drew Donaldson
Published on: 27/06/2026

Almost 88% of enterprises use AI, but only a sliver get measurable ROI. Here is the gap behind enterprise AI adoption in 2026 and what the winners do differently.

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