AI Still Has to Run Somewhere
As agents take on business work, choosing a model is only one part of choosing how the business will operate.
Read field note →Technology is only valuable when it can be trusted to work.
Field notes on AI, data, identity, observability, infrastructure, and the decisions that turn technology into business outcomes.
The thinking behind Field Notes
- Value lives in the capability and the outcome.
- Identity determines who may act.
- Trusted data supplies context.
- Observability provides evidence.
- Infrastructure and operations make the work repeatable.
Latest field note
We Modernized the Data Stack. Did We Modernize the Data?
Modern platforms expand what AI can do. Leaders still own the definitions, sources, permissions and operating decisions that turn data into business value.
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The ongoing record
Recent writing
Who Is Watching the Agents?
The more authority we give AI agents, the better our evidence needs to be about what they actually accomplished.
Read field note →I Want a Personal AI Agent. I Also Want It to Know When to Stop.
Personal agents are moving from conversation to delegation. The real question is not only what they can do, but what makes them stop.
Read field note →Where Does Value Live?
AI agents are separating the application from the capability underneath it. If customers stop opening your software but consume more of what it does, where does the value actually live?
Read field note →Identity Stops at Login. AI Doesn't.
AI agents do not just change who needs an identity. They change how long we need to keep making trust decisions.
Read field note →A Lock Only Keeps an Honest Person Honest
Every era of identity attack tells the same story: unmanaged trust plus poor visibility inside the environment.
Read field note →Agents Don't Get Hacked. They Get Asked.
Three incidents this week prove the same point, and it isn't the one most of the coverage led with.
Read field note →The Allowance Problem
Would you give your AI agent a credit card or a debit card?
Read field note →The Cost of Thank You
A "thank you" to an LLM costs almost nothing. Training people to stop sounding human might cost a lot more.
Read field note →Short-form observations