The AI Weekender

Your firm just launched its third AI initiative this year. Your phone has ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek installed — apps you’re still figuring out. Your intern built an AI agent in their spare time and won’t stop talking about it. Everyone around you seems fluent in a language you haven’t quite learned yet.

You are not alone.

The AI Weekender is here to explain the fundamentals of AI for smart, time-poor professionals like you. Take 30 minutes on a weekend, read one piece, and understand a little more about AI.

About me: I’ve spent a decade working at the intersection of business and technology. AI is new — but the question of how technology actually lands inside organisations, what makes people adopt it or resist it, and where the real friction is: that’s not new at all. I built this column to share what I’ve learned with the people who need it most: smart professionals who don’t have time to go looking for it themselves.

I’m taking what I know about technology — and about what actually matters to business and to the people running it — and sharing it here.

The AI Weekender #1: What Is a Large Language Model, Really?

Issue: #1 Reading time: ~10 min Level: No prior AI knowledge required AI Contribution: This post was written with the assistance of Claude. The ideas and direction are my own; the AI helped compile and draft the content. I use “model,” “LLM,” and “AI” interchangeably. So does almost everyone I work with — including people who spend a lot of time thinking about this. In the flow of a meeting or a Slack message, it usually doesn’t matter. But occasionally I catch myself saying something like “the AI doesn’t know about that” or “the model gets confused when…” and I notice I’m gesturing at something fuzzy. There’s a concept I’m circling but not quite landing on. ...