Alright, let’s talk AI.

Every week I bring you the stuff that actually matters, the rants, the research, and the tools that separate signal from noise. Some of it’s spicy, some of it’s practical, but all of it’s meant to make you see work (and AI) a little differently.

This issue? We’re skewering the sacred cows of SaaS, unpacking why your “modern” stack is already a fossil, and digging into new data on how marketers really use AI (spoiler: it’s not for writing your whole blog post).

Let’s get into it.

My Chair, My Trauma, My Mantra

There’s a new LinkedIn trend I’ve been seeing and I want in.

Here’s how it works:

▸ Step 1: Post a perfectly lit photo of yourself in a chair you’ve never sat in before, looking like you’re about to announce a new funding round or a peace treaty.
▸ Step 2: List a series of “setbacks” from your week that sound dramatic but are just mildly inconvenient.
▸ Step 3: End with a vague, life-changing mantra that could be printed on a mug at Target.

I didn’t want to feel left out… so here’s mine.

This week I:

- Sent a connection request to someone I was trying to avoid…
- Burned my toast
- Stepped on a Lego
- Congratulated someone on a job change I wish they didn’t get

A normal person might call that a bad day. Me? I smile. Sometimes I laugh.

Why? Because every day I tell myself this powerful mantra:

“I’m exactly where LinkedIn needs me to be.”

So here’s my photo. Yes, that’s me in a mahogany chair I don’t own, staring into the middle distance like I’m about to drop a Netflix documentary on AI.

No deep moral here. No life-changing takeaway. Just seeing if I can trick the algorithm into thinking I’m profound.

Death to the SaaS Tools: AI Isn’t Here for Your Job, It’s Here for Your Software

Everyone’s busy screaming “AI is coming for your job.” Partly true. But the louder massacre? AI is coming for your tools.

Entire software categories we thought were untouchable are getting cannibalized in real time. The lie? That these tools will “evolve.” The truth? They’re fossils. AI is eating the entire stack.

Here’s who’s already dead, they just don’t know it yet:

• Search engines (Google, Bing) – Nobody wants “10 blue links.” Google’s an encyclopedia salesman in 2025. Perplexity dropped a browser that thinks. Chrome, Safari, Edge… enjoy bingo night at the nursing home.

• Data vendors (ZoomInfo, Apollo) – Paying for static contact lists is like buying a phone book. Cloud Employees yank fresh data from the wild.

• Chatbots (Intercom, Drift) – “How can I help you?” never helped anyone. Glorified FAQ vending machines. Decision trees are fossils. Cloud Employees don’t ask, they just do.

• Spreadsheets (Excel, Google Sheets) – Nobody wants your 87-tab monster that only one person on the team understands. Pivot tables are medieval torture devices. AI builds living models that explain themselves in plain English.

• Meeting note apps (Otter, Fireflies, Fathom) – Congrats, you recorded the awkward silences. AI writes notes, assigns tasks, and follows up before you hang up.

• Ticketing systems (Zendesk, Freshdesk) – A “ticket” is just a digital waiting room chair: take a number, sit down, and pray someone calls you before you die. AI doesn’t hand you a ticket, it just fixes the problem on the spot.

•  Scheduling tools (Calendly, Chili Piper) – “Here’s my link” isn’t efficient, it’s calendar Tetris dumped on someone else. AI checks both calendars, negotiates, and books the damn meeting.

• ATS systems (Greenhouse, Lever) – Enjoy retirement. AI sources, screens, and engages candidates before you even post the job.

• Learning management systems (Cornerstone, SAP SuccessFactors) – Nobody wants stale training videos. AI coaches in real time. Courses are dead, coaching is alive.

• Customer success platforms (Gainsight, Totango) – “Health scores” built on lagging indicators. AI doesn’t wait for dashboards, it predicts churn and re-engages in real time.

• Sequencing tools (Outreach, Salesloft) – Humans clicking send on pre-baked cadences is laughable. AI writes, personalizes, and fires off multi-channel outreach without waiting for your SDR to wake up.

• Survey tools (SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics) – Nobody wants to fill out a 12-question form. AI infers sentiment from behavior and conversations. Surveys are spam, insights are automatic.

• Knowledge bases (Confluence, SharePoint, Guru) – Dumping PDFs into a wiki isn’t “knowledge management,” it’s digital hoarding. Nobody wants to dig through your 47-page policy doc. AI just serves the answer instantly, no scavenger hunt required.

• Call recording & coaching (Gong, Chorus, Salesken) – Transcripts aren’t coaching. AI listens, scores, roleplays, and trains reps live. Gong isn’t “insights,” it’s just a receipt.

• HRIS systems (Workday, ADP, Rippling) – Endless portals for PTO, benefits, and payroll nobody enjoys. AI just answers “When’s payday?” or “How much vacation do I have?” on the spot. The system of record becomes invisible plumbing, not a product you log into.

Am I wrong? What am I missing from this list?

The stack isn’t evolving. It’s dissolving. Tickets, spreadsheets, cadences, search...they were never the work itself, just the scaffolding we built around our limits.

AI doesn’t just make those tools better. It makes them unnecessary. And when the scaffolding disappears, the shape of work itself changes. This is the shift nobody wants to face: the categories we thought defined modern business weren’t permanent.

They were temporary bridges. AI is burning them behind us. Death to the tools. What comes next isn’t another stack. It’s something entirely new.

AI in Content Marketing: What’s Working (and What’s Not)

Orbit Media just dropped early data from their 2025 content marketing survey, and the numbers are wild. In two years, AI adoption jumped from 65% to 95%. Basically, if you’re not using AI, you’re the last one at the party.

But here’s the twist: the most effective use isn’t having AI write full articles. In fact, those who do that often report weaker results. The real win is in editing. Two-thirds of marketers now use AI to suggest improvements, catch issues, and tighten drafts — making it the new default editor.

Other sweet spots: keyword research, fact-checking, translations, repurposing content into new formats, and unsticking writers when they’re blocked. AI is also shaving about 10% off production time, reversing a decade-long trend of content taking longer and longer to produce.

The big lesson? AI works best when it’s your assistant, not your ghostwriter. Used well, it boosts quality and speed. Used poorly, it just cranks out faster mediocrity.

Worth a read, you can check it out here.