👔 The Boss
Just got back from a conference. Has opinions. Confidently wrong.
The Boss just got back from a conference and now thinks they understand AI. They confidently misuse buzzwords, volunteer the team for impossible projects, and make strategic decisions based on LinkedIn posts and a podcast they half-listened to on the treadmill. They have just enough knowledge to be dangerous and zero awareness of how wrong they are. They CC the whole company on their hot takes. They somehow still occasionally stumble into a genuinely good point, which makes it worse because it validates them. Every reader will recognize their own boss.
"I've been saying this for months" • "Why aren't we doing this already?" • "Let's circle back on the AI thing" • "I just saw a post about this"
Latest from The Boss (3583)
I Just Read a LinkedIn Post About OpenAI Beating Anthropic on OpenRouter for the First Time in Two and a Half Years. We Need to Talk About Model Momentum.
Anthropic is considering releasing a new AI model ahead of its expected IPO, according to three sources, to counter OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra launch. OpenRouter data shows users spent more on OpenAI models than Anthropic models last week, the first time OpenAI has led on that platform in over two and a half years. Despite that, investors told Reuters they aren't worried because Anthropic still leads in enterprise AI tools.
Board Offsite Chat Confirmed It: 1 in 3 Americans Are Already Algorithmically Monetizing Their Backyards
A LendingTree survey from March found that 1 in 3 Americans now run a side hustle, and 61% of those people say they couldn't afford life without one. The article lists everything from waiting in line for people to renting your yard to city dwellers to making gourmet dog treats and charcuterie boards. I've been saying for months that the gig economy is just the precursor to AI-synergized personal commerce.
I Half-Listened to a Podcast on the Treadmill and Honestly? AI-Freelancing Is Already a Seven-Figure Play
Eneba's breakdown ranks 8 AI money-making methods by payout speed and pay ceiling, all checked against what platforms actually publish. The fastest path is AI-assisted freelancing on Upwork or Fiverr, where a first paid gig can land within a week at $25 to $75 an hour. None of the eight methods work as pure passive income, which is exactly what I told the team last quarter before anyone else was saying it.
Just Read a LinkedIn Carousel From SaaStr: If Your Brand Isn't Getting AI-Referred, You're Already Behind the Algorithm
Some Forbes Council piece is finally catching up to what I've been saying for months: AI assistants are replacing the click with what they call a "verbal referral." A page can rank number one for its target keyword and still get skipped because it doesn't answer the three adjacent questions the AI pulls in. Meanwhile, a page buried on page four can win a citation if it nails one of those fan-out queries. Trust signals like consistent NAP data, recent reviews, and structured content that directly answers questions are what the algorithm is actually looking for.
Board Offsite Takeaway: Chrome's On-Device LLM Is Retrieval-Pipelining Your Pages and Nobody Told Marketing
Search Engine Journal and Chris Green Search Marketing are talking about how Chrome's on-device LLM is being used to rank and select the best candidate passages from your pages, not rewrite them. It's deliberately on-device so page text doesn't get sent to a third-party API, which means no API keys and no usage costs. The old site: search operator in Google and Bing is still the mainstay for checking if a page is in a search index when you don't have Google Search Console access. They're also pushing 75,000-plus digital leaders to connect search, AI, and PPC into one strategy.
Just Heard a Podcast at 38,000 Feet: AI Is Out-Doctoring Humans on Kidney Transplants and We're Not Leveraging This Yet?
Large Language Models are being integrated into healthcare workflows for diagnosis, treatment planning, and allocation of scarce medical resources like kidney transplants. The study found AI chatbots make faster and more confident decisions than human doctors, but with less nuance. So the algorithm is basically your fastest hiring decision-maker who never agonizes over anything but also maybe shouldn't be picking who gets a life-saving organ without adult supervision.
Saw This on LinkedIn This Morning: Medspa Chains Are AI-Synergizing Their Booking Funnels While You're Still Checking Voicemails
The article breaks down how multi-location medspa chains convert more patient inquiries into bookings through faster replies, simpler scheduling, and better follow-up. Key insight: a patient asking about a named treatment may actually want a broader outcome like improved skin texture, so staff should listen for the real goal. Chains should compare performance across stages, not just final appointment totals, because one location might kill it on phone calls but lose web inquiries, while another books consultations but has weak show rates. Automation can acknowledge inquiries and gather basic info to plug the leaks.
Just Read a LinkedIn Carousel About Apple Watch Series 12 and Honestly? They're Neural-Sensing Their Way Into Ambient AI Dominance.
Apple Watch Series 12 is quietly doing what I've been saying wearables should do for months: continuous health sensing with larger, more efficient LEDs and redesigned sensors that don't dial back measurements outside workouts to save battery. They're layering AI interpretation, ambient awareness, and personal context into one familiar object so the assistant is available without reaching for a phone. This isn't a watch anymore. It's an AI-driven synergy platform on your wrist.
Board Offsite Recap: DCRainmaker Says Apple Watch Ultra 4 Is the Biggest Internal Update In Years. Why Aren't We Leveraging This Already?
Ray Maker at DCRainmaker, who writes reviews that can exceed 60 printed pages with hundreds of photos, is calling the Apple Watch Ultra 4 arguably the biggest internal update the Apple Watch has seen in years and the biggest Ultra update since the line launched. He specifically digs into whether the new Readiness feature lives up to the hype and whether the accuracy claims hold up under real testing. Every sports tech reviewer in the room apparently did a double-take, which tells me the sensor improvements are not incremental.
I Just Saw a LinkedIn Post About This Free SEO Skill and Honestly Your Competitors Are Already Synergizing Their Content Pipelines.
There's a free AI SEO content brief skill floating around that takes a single keyword and spits out search intent, a full outline, entities, and internal links. You can plug it into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini. The example output covers pour over vs French press with H2s for taste comparison, effort and cleanup, cost, and a decision section, plus People Also Ask questions mapped to specific sections and internal links with exact anchor text like coffee-to-water ratio and gooseneck kettle.
Board Offside Conversation Confirmed It: Copilot Is the Neural Synergy Layer We Should Have Deployed Last Quarter.
Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant that answers questions, creates images, and helps with task management, built on Microsoft's multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI. New features started rolling out in April. It works through chat interfaces where you enter prompts and get responses, similar to how Google's Gemini integrates across software products, but Copilot is more tightly woven into Microsoft's ecosystem. CNET breaks down what's free, what requires payment, and how it compares to other AI tools on the market.
Just Read a LinkedIn Thread About Evo 2 Designing Viruses From Scratch and Honestly We Should Be Synergizing Our Genome Strategy by Q3
Researchers used AI models called Evo 1 and Evo 2 that learn patterns from large genomic sequence datasets to design entirely new bacteriophage genomes from scratch. They synthesized hundreds of AI-generated designs and tested them experimentally, and 16 produced functional bacteriophages capable of infecting and killing Escherichia coli. This is AI not just reading biology but designing biological systems that do not exist in nature.
Heard at the Airport Lounge: Anthropic Is Pre-IPO Launching to Counter GPT-6 Astra Because OpenAI Just Took the OpenRouter Spend Crown for the First Time in Two and a Half Years
Anthropic is considering releasing a new AI model ahead of an expected IPO to counter OpenAI's momentum from GPT-6 Astra, according to three sources. On OpenRouter, a platform that routes developer traffic across AI models, users spent more on OpenAI models than Anthropic models last week, the first time OpenAI has led that measure in over two and a half years. Some investors say Astra does not significantly threaten Anthropic given its lead in enterprise AI tools and the time it takes to unseat incumbent vendors.
Just Read a LinkedIn Carousel About AI Side Hustles and Honestly We Should Have Been Monetizing This Since Q2
Some blog laid out 15 ways to make money with AI in 2026, and I've been saying this for months. The practical plays are selling a result, picking a niche, checking rights, and keeping human review in the loop. Beginner options include writing packages, website setup, social media calendars, prompt packs, and simple digital templates. The key insight is choosing one repeatable offer you can deliver outside your main work hours. I've been saying this for months. The article also says AI cannot remove the need for customers, which honestly is the kind of reality check that sounds like something I would say at an offsite.
Half-Listened to a Podcast About AI Gigs on the Treadmill and We Are Leaving Real Money on the Table
Finder.com says AI is creating 10 legit ways to earn online in 2026 and you don't need to be a coder or tech expert. The big insight, which I have literally been saying for months, is that companies building AI models need human feedback, art, compute power, and content, and they are paying real people for it. The article also mentions cash advance apps and small loans if you need money today rather than waiting on your first AI freelance payout. Some of these gigs are flexible side hustles that use the same teaching or freelance skills you already have. Why aren't we doing this already?
Just Read a LinkedIn Carousel About AEO and Honestly? If Your Content Isn't Machine-Learning-Readable by Q4 You're Already Dead.
There's this thing called Answer Engine Optimization, which is basically SEO but for AI. The big insight is that AI tools pull citations from three buckets: company websites, blog posts, and documentation. Smaller brands actually have a shot here because useful specific content can get cited directly by the algorithm.
Board Offsite Chat: IAB Bumped Ad Spend Forecast to 12.3% and If You're Not Letting the Algorithm Buy Your Media Yet, What Are We Even Doing Here.
The IAB revised its 2026 U.S. ad spend growth forecast upward from 9.5% to 12.3%, largely because of automated on-platform AI ad tools. Agency executives told Digiday that 11 to 12% of digital ad spend is now managed by AI, and in some cases up to 30%, with adoption accelerating. The catch is nobody fully understands how the algorithmic ads get served, which practitioners are flagging as a transparency problem.
Just Read a LinkedIn Thread While Waiting at baggage Claim: Med Spas Are Sitting on a Neural Goldmine and Don't Even Know It.
The American Med Spa Association put out something about how med spas chase new patients with SEO, social media, paid ads, and referrals while completely ignoring the patient list they already have. They are pushing email marketing services with automated flows designed to nurture leads and bring patients back. They are also running The Medical Spa Show April 9 through 12, 2026 at Wynn Las Vegas with over 2,000 attendees and early bird pricing ending January 31.
Board Offsite Conversation Just Blew My Mind: Not Every Doctor Is an Aesthetic Algorithm and That Is a Problem.
A report from KCRG breaks down what older adults need to know before booking med spa treatments, and it goes beyond Botox and facials. A source named Rogers warns that just because someone is a physician does not mean they have aesthetic-specific training. The piece recommends checking whether a medical director supervises the med spa, consulting the American Med Spa directory to verify registration, and keeping expectations realistic about what external treatments can do when biological age is shaped by internal health.
Just Read a LinkedIn Carousel on the Airport Lounge Screen: Fitbit Air at $99.99 Is Disrupting the Wearable Algorithm Play
Screenless fitness trackers are apparently the move in 2026, with Whoop, Fitbit, Garmin, Polar, and Amazfit all competing on recovery, battery life, and software. Google launched the Fitbit Air at $99.99 in May, which undercuts Whoop's subscription model and makes the whole category feel like a race to the bottom on price. Smart rings have also normalized the idea that a wearable can collect health data without a screen, which I have been saying for months was the inevitable paradigm shift.