Fish Food 684: Are we having the wrong conversation on AI and jobs? On the AI jobs apocalypse, Google Stitch, why social media is polarising but AI is not, Claude computer use, and the infinity machine.

Are we having the wrong conversation about AI and jobs? This week's post focuses on bank tellers and ATMs, the dawn of the electric age, that widely misinterpreted Anthropic study, and the hidden risk that no-one is talking about open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

Fish Food 683: Designing your Agentic system Thinking bigger about AI agents, what 81,000 people want from AI, OpenAI's superapp, cognitive sovereignty, and playing the guitar on the MTV

How do you actually design for an agentic future? In this week's post I look at three critical aspects...I hope it's useful open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

Companies will have to pay UK supplier invoices within 60 days or face fines CBI praises legislation aimed at protecting small businesses for striking ‘the right balance’

This legislation aimed at protecting small businesses from late payment of invoices is much needed. I've run a small business for over 16 years. Large companies late paying small ones is completely unnecessary and also has consequences beyond cash flow. www.ft.com/content/287c...

Maybe Meta should consider taking down (or changing) this page

Fish Food 682: Using AI to transform client relationships Step-changing client management, how we work with AI, bad services, AI mimicking human conscious behaviours, and is Spotify toast?

This week I've written about some very practical ways in which AI can transform client relationship management for agencies and consultants. Beyond simple automations and minor efficiency gains, how to properly rebuild how you work onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...

Heading there in May so I shall have to tap you up for some recommendations

Fish Food 681: Leading Human/AI Hybrid Teams Agent + human teams, AI in Account Management, switching to Claude, and why we risk missing the benefits of the journey

I wrote a few words on leading human/AI hybrid teams open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

Ha. Nicely done

Fluked Fluke

Update on this ongoing saga...

BAG: 'Congratulations. You're now set up on our system'

Me: Yay. Can you pay my invoice please? It's two months overdue

BAG: It will take 30 days from now for the system to process your payment

Me: 🙄

I'm doing a keynote about AI at an agency event on Friday and I've title my talk 'Beyond the Mediocrity Machine'. So much talk about efficiency and productivity, so little about how it can be a true creative and thought partner.

Saw them last year and they were just great. I'd forgotten how many bangers they'd had but also the newer stuff was good too

And how many people listen to their phones on speaker without headphones which is a personal bug bear of mine

Fascinating angle this. Before now I've used Amazon as an example of a business that believes in the value of writing as a way of thinking and explaining (so many businesses default to PPT). This gives a whole new dimension to cognitive outsourcing.

Saw Wuthering Heights last night. Verdict - I thought it was brilliant but the most amazing thing in it was not what I had expected - Martin Clunes was absolutely phenomenal

A real up and down week but some great client things happened this week and ending it on a high with a new business win 😀

To be fair, I think there's a real risk that it will be increasingly difficult for junior staff to learn the kind of craft skills that enables good judgement in a domain

Fish Food 678: The value of craft in the age of Agentic AI Superagency or dependency? How AI gets it wrong, why LLMs can't jump, machine fluency and meaningless work.

Anthropic’s Head of Product for Enterprise said last week that he thought we were moving into an era of ‘vibe working’. So I've written something about the value of craft, and what we're in danger of losing onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...

I mean, I get that money's tight but you're taking it out on the wrong company. I'm literally a company of one person. Just pay what you owe

Latest installment in this ongoing saga:

BAG: 'Register on our system with all the information you've already given us'

Me: Okayyyy

BAG: We need you to upload a letter from your bank with an explanation of Quantum theory on it

(OK I made that last bit up but it may as well have been that)

Ping! The WhatsApps that should have been an email If your instant message requires immediate attention, fine. But many don’t — they’re just inconsiderate

WhatsApp is great for personal stuff and quick messages but I have clients who insist on using it for almost everything. It's a thing. 'WhatsApps that should have been an email' giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

I'm a huge fan of what the BBC does and personally believe it's great value for money. The government consultation on the future of the BBC is online and anyone can submit a response. Takes about 15 minutes to do dcms.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Yes, big agencies have consistently been the worst payers for me. Small agencies are fine

Me to big agency group (BAG): 'Can you pay my invoice please as it's now overdue'

BAG:

Me: Can you pay my invoice please?

BAG:

Me: Please?

*One month later*

BAG: Can you fill in this new information and it will take 2 weeks to onboard you to.our new payment system

Me: 🙄

I've just bought this and it's on the pile to read. May bump it up to the top based on this

Fish Food 676: The Coming Revolution in Learning The future of L & D, a manifesto for a new approach to AI, Claude Cowork, the miracle of kindness and the best book covers from the last decade.

AI is about to steamroller through traditional L & D practice, so what could the future of learning in the workplace look like? I've had a go at mapping it out. Interested to know what you think onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...

That's quite the combination of topics! I worked recently with someone who always uses voice with ChatGPT - I always wonder how I'd be articulate enough to prompt it for exactly what I wanted but it's amazing how good he's got at that

Fish Food 675: Business Critical Thinking Blindly following technology, Claude's new constitution, OpenAI ads, and what the Victorians knew about AI.

AI doesn’t just give us answers, it shapes what we pay attention to. With AI becoming more ubiquitous in business, if we take short cuts, or fail to think critically, there is a huge danger that we are building up systemic risk onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...

PURPOSE IS POINTLESS Johnson & Johnson book poses questions about institutions that Purpose cannot answer.

This is a powerful takedown by Margaret Heffernan of the whole pretence around corporate 'purpose' which so often falls foul of less worthy incentives in the face of the realities of the market and leadership priorities heffernanm.substack.com/p/purpose-is...

Fish Food 674: Re-imagining the corporation in the age of AI The future of the corporation, personal super-assistants, WPP Agent Hub, Claude Code, and vibe-coding fashion

We’ve reached a point where a radical rethink of how organisations are structured and nature of work has become an existential necessity. onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...