Hand-Picked Content
Fewer People, Same Output
Article, 20 min
We are in deep sleep as a society. Not about AI in general, but about what it is actually doing to entire organizations. This piece is not about individual roles being replaced. It is about structural change: teams rebuilding from scratch, roles merging, headcount projections that reflect fundamentally new ways of working.
A few numbers:
- One 120-person engineering team is planning to cut down to 25.
- One engineer now overseeing what used to require eight people.
New roles are emerging too, like the validator: the person whose job it is to evaluate and sign off on what an AI agent produces.
Meanwhile, we all turn into generalists, taking on work that previously required dedicated specialists.
Take it with a grain of salt. This is published by a venture firm heavily invested in the companies driving that change. But if you are knee-deep in AI, or busy with work, this piece helps you zoom out.
The Mirror, Not Oracle
Blog, 10 min
Bernie Sanders interviewed an AI chatbot to expose its secrets. It went viral, and it is a cool move, but it also showed the core problem with AI clearly. It is a statistics engine, trying to give you the most probable answer that fits your question. Ask it scary questions, get scary answers. Ask it reassuring questions, get reassuring answers. It is a mirror, not a source.
Hack your workflow
Claude Takes the Wheel
Claude released a browser extension that lets you drop tasks into it and watch it execute them. The marketing video looks great, but in practice it is not that smooth yet. I tried it for a simple task, filling out a form. It worked, but it took so long that I would have done it in a fraction of the time myself. Regardless, it is a very interesting proof of concept that shows the direction we are headed: telling the computer what to do in natural language and letting the agent do the work.
Tools & Apps
Lean Workspace App
Productivity
Saga is an app for organising your notes, docs, and tasks. Sounds like Notion? It is similar, just leaner. The free plan supports up to 3 members with unlimited pages and tasks, which makes it especially appealing for small teams. It also connects with Google Drive and Linear, keeping your workflow in sync.
Record Meetings Locally
Productivity
Minutes is an open-source tool that records meetings and voice memos, transcribes everything locally on your device, and makes it all searchable without your audio ever leaving your machine. Getting it to run involves the command line, so you can guess the target audience.
China’s Next AI Contender
AI Chat
Z.ai is a Chinese AI company that offers free access to their latest model GLM-5 via chat. The model is open source and built to compete directly with Claude and ChatGPT, with a focus on coding and agentic tasks.
Right now it does not require a subscription. Output quality and response speed get mixed reviews, but the benchmarks are solid. A Claude/ChatGPT competitor to watch.
Fresh Reflections
How Tos, opinions, thoughts.
🔜 AI Prototyping Workshop Vienna (April 23/24) 👀
Turning an idea into a working digital prototype is a skill every digital creator should master. Our workshop does exactly that. You’ll go from idea to working prototype, no coding required. Newsletter subscribers get a discount, just hit reply to get the details.
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We just launched something new: got an idea for an app but no developer to build it? That is exactly what this is for.
Blog: WordPress vs AI generated websites
WordPress Is Not Getting Replaced by a New CMS but AI. At the beginning of the vibecoding era, the common thinking was: AI is good enough for a static page, but maintaining and updating it is cumbersome.
Classifieds
Descript: Audio and Video Editing for Creators
Descript started as a podcast editor where you edit audio by editing the transcript. Today it’s a full-fledged audio and video editor for creators. Quirky at times, but powerful once you’re into it.
No-Nonsense Web Analytics
For too long, installing Google Analytics on a new website was the default option for many webmasters, but for most projects, it’s overly complex. Meet Fathom, privacy-first, cookie-free web analytics. We ditched GA for Fathom a long time ago.
The Smart Email Marketing Alternative
EmailOctopus is the email software perfect for creators and small businesses. Simple, intuitive, world-class support – all at a fair price point. And this newsletter also runs on EmailOctopus.
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🤝 Work with Fresh van Root
An AI-native agency with a human-centric approach. We run digital marketing projects across content, social, and growth, helping teams adopt AI workflows without losing their soul. Book a call
Off-Topic Links
Rural America
Youtube
Peter Santenello is a YouTuber with a laid-back style reporting on rural America and beyond. Worth a watch.