Free Expert Prompt + Anthropic opt‐out by Sep 28

Friends,

your weekly AI briefing is here - designed to help you respond to AI, not react to the noise. No curveballs. No chaos. Just clarity.

🚀 Congratulations! You’re reading one of the Best 25 AI newsletter’s in the world!

This week, AI Optimist was voted one of the best 25 AI newsletter’s in the world by Zapier, the AI Automation company that has been in this game longer than most. Naturally, we’re pretty thrilled with that recognition, so…

This is a perfect time for you to share this newsletter with a leader who you know will appreciate a weekly dose of pragmatic optimism when it comes to AI. 🤓

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📰 This was the week that was...

AI revealed its duality this week - job cuts in one corner, flat productivity in another. But dig deeper, and the real story is about execution, not contradiction. Salesforce announced 4,000 job losses, while Reach in the UK put 600 roles at risk. Both moves were explained as responses to AI-driven change. At the same time, the UK Cabinet Office released results from its Copilot trial, showing no measurable productivity upside. Headlines clashed - AI cutting jobs but not boosting output.

The truth lies in execution. Job cuts are (at least) as much about cost discipline and incentives as automation. Productivity trials falter without training, permissions, and redesign. This is why benefits realisation and change management, not tools alone, remain the levers that turn hype into measurable progress.

Let’s get into it.

🔥 There is an Urgent Priority

Anthropic Consumer Terms update - action by 28 September. Consumer users of Claude must now choose whether chats can be used for training. If accepted, data may be retained for five years. Work, Gov, Education, and API accounts are excluded.

Action for leaders: ensure staff are not using consumer accounts for work, notify teams to switch training Off, and update records for retention risk.

👉 Book a call to help you respond.

*We aim to highlight that there are no urgent priorities each week (Which we define as an event that triggers us to take action in the next 90 days.) This is the first urgent priority in 11 weeks.

🎯 Strategic Insight: Let’s talk about benefits realisation and change management

• What’s the Tension: Job cuts and stalled productivity reports suggest AI is failing on both sides.

• Optimistic insight: Both show the same truth: outcomes hinge on execution and the ability to measure results - Luckily change management and benefits realisation are existing tools that help.

• What’s shifting: Boards are treating GenAI transformation as enterprise change, not tool deployment.

• Why it matters now: Leaders who deploy tools without good change management and benefits realisation plans risk flat outcomes. Those who design for benefits-realisation and put solid change management in place will show measurable progress.

✅ Takeaway: Build a change management and benefits realisation plan for every AI initiative, with baseline metrics, accountable owners, and checkpoints.

Supporting sources: BBC Cabinet Office findings, Guardian on Reach job cuts

🧐 A free Prompt from AI Night School

🤓 Geek-Out Stories

1. UAE launches open-source reasoning model “K2 Think”
   The UAE introduced “K2 Think,” an open-source reasoning AI, backed by the president as a sovereign initiative.

   
   Why it matters: Expands the AI race beyond the US and Europe, showing how nations are pursuing independence and leadership in frontier AI.

2. Meta’s Llama 3.2 aboard the ISS
   Meta’s Llama 3.2 model was deployed on the International Space Station, giving astronauts offline AI support to query and summarise documents.

   
   Why it matters: This demonstrates AI’s resilience in extreme environments - inspiration for industries like defence, logistics, and healthcare.

3. AI stethoscope detects heart conditions in seconds
   Researchers at Imperial College London developed an AI stethoscope capable of rapidly identifying conditions like heart failure and atrial fibrillation.

   
   Why it matters: A practical example of AI for good - bringing tangible, life-saving benefits into frontline healthcare.

🎨 Weekend Playground

Try Gemini’s new audio uploads

Record a short clip from your next meeting and let Gemini surface action items, themes, and risks. A low-friction way to test how far AI can cut the noise.

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Stay strategic, stay generous.

Hugo & Ben