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• The Future Isn't About ROI, It's About Return on Adaptation (ROA)

• AI Powered Central Brain

  • BYGEN Updates

    • Microsoft Cuts 6,000 Jobs in Strategic Overhaul

    • Anthropic Gears Up for Major Claude Update

    • Pope Flags AI as Key Challenge for Humanity

    • Higgsfield AI Revolutionizes Ad Creation

    • Other News

    • Quick hits

The Future Isn't About ROI, It's About Return on Adaptation (ROA)

Lately, I've been having thinking about the future with AI a lot, having conversations with friends, colleagues, and other companies, and a thought has been crystallizing in my mind: in the very near future, we need to shift our focus from the traditional Return on Investment (ROI) to what I'm calling Return on Adaptation (ROA).

Why? Because the AI revolution isn't just another tech upgrade, it's a paradigm shift, and legacy companies, in particular, are about to face a monumental challenge.

Think about it. The core of most businesses – their people and their systems – are deeply entrenched in pre-AI ways of working. The effort required to "reprogram and rewire" this existing infrastructure to be AI-first is staggering. I foresee a significant wave of restructuring and, yes, firings over the next five years as companies grapple with this. The rise of AI agents and automation will only accelerate this, pushing operational capabilities to an entirely new level, leaving those who can't adapt further and further behind.

This rapid, almost relentless, growth means companies will be increasingly reliant on AI professionals – not just those who can code, but those who understand how to strategically implement and maximize these complex systems, generalists. This isn't like previous tech revolutions that unfolded over decades. This is happening at lightning speed. Adaptation, staying relentlessly on top of the news, and constant tinkering aren't just good habits anymore, they are the most crucial skills for survival and success.

This is how you'll beat your competition. As Sam Altman recently highlighted, it's about teaching your employees to use AI as an operating system, not just a slightly better Google search bar. You can hear him discuss this vision of AI becoming a core operational tool, where different user generations already show distinct patterns of deeper integration, in his discussion at Sequoia Capital's AI Ascent. The potential here is so much more profound than most people currently grasp. Relearning how to learn, with AI as a partner, will unlock unprecedented levels of output.

It reminds me of how Steve Jobs thought about talent and leverage. He famously said something along these lines:

Jobs understood that software development offered massive, non-linear returns. The best taxi driver might get you there a few minutes faster, but a brilliant programmer could design systems or architect platforms that create value on an entirely different scale. He used this insight to champion small, elite teams at Apple, believing they could out-innovate bloated organizations purely through superior insight and execution.

With AI as the new ultimate leverage, Jobs' insight is more potent than ever. The gap between average and elite performers isn't just about raw skill anymore, it’s about adaptability, systems thinking, and the ability to collaborate effectively with AI. If you’re not continuously learning and iterating in this new landscape, you risk being outpaced by someone who is, or by AI itself. Just as taxi drivers were disrupted by platforms like Uber, I believe average programmers – and many other roles that don't adapt – will be "Agent'd" by AI. Individuals who can think at a systems level, who can envision and build AI-integrated workflows, will achieve output magnitudes greater than those who remain unaware or unable to leverage AI's true capabilities. As Eric Schmidt recently put it in a TED Talk, AI is, if anything, underhyped.

Now, I know "Return on Adaptation" isn't a term you'll find on a balance sheet – yet. But the strategic imperative it represents is, in my view, undeniable. It's about valuing the ability of an organization to pivot, to learn, and to transform in the face of this AI tsunami.

And it seems I'm not alone in this thinking. The underlying principle is strongly supported by current business analysis:

• Recent McKinsey insights emphasize the critical role of strategic workforce planning in the age of AI and how AI can transform workforce planning, highlighting that a focus on talent, capabilities, and reskilling is essential for navigating technological disruptions. While a specific "50% of success" statistic wasn't immediately found in the provided links, the overarching theme is that adaptability and talent are paramount.

• Gartner's Future of Work Trends 2025 stresses that businesses must redesign their organizational structures to prepare for continuous technological innovation ("Future of Work Trend 2: Organizations redesign to prepare for technological innovation").

• The correlation between adaptability and performance is well-documented. For instance, studies referenced by Vorecol indicate that companies with high adaptability have 45% better odds of outperforming their peers, and other reports show that organizations fostering adaptable work environments can see a 30% increase in employee engagement, which is directly linked to improved performance. While a specific "34% higher productivity" was not in the immediate snippets, the link between adaptability and significant performance/productivity gains is clear.

• While a Harvard Business Review study explicitly stating "6.7 times more likely to achieve above-average profitability" wasn't in the top search results, HBR has extensively covered how Adaptability is the New Competitive Advantage. This article discusses how the correlation between market share leadership and profitability has significantly declined, and that second-order organizational capabilities fostering rapid adaptation are now key.

• Traditional ROI metrics are struggling to capture the full, often foundational, impact of AI. When AI becomes as embedded as electricity, its value is less about isolated project returns and more about enterprise resilience, agility, and sustained competitive advantage.

• The human element is paramount. The ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn will be the most valuable currency in the AI era. Fostering AI literacy across the entire organization and cultivating a culture of relentless learning and experimentation isn't just advisable, it's non-negotiable.

The sheer speed of this AI revolution amplifies the urgency. Treating AI as a fundamental operating system, not a bolt-on tool, is key to achieving that systemic-level thinking and the massive output gains I mentioned.

So, while "Return on Adaptation" might be a new way of framing it, the concept is very real and incredibly pertinent. The capacity of an organization – its culture, its people, its processes – to adapt to the whirlwind of AI advancement will be the ultimate determinant of who thrives and who merely survives in the years to come. It's time to start measuring and valuing our ability to change. Our future depends on it.

Why Notion (and its Unlimited AI) is Winning Me Over

Okay, so I've been using Notion for ages, I use it as my second brain. My memory is pretty terrible, so having this one spot for everything – work stuff, life stuff, all of it – has been a lifesaver. I even flirted with other project management tools for a bit, but honestly, the way Notion has been innovating, especially with all this new AI stuff, has totally pulled me back in.

Think about it.. all your company's crucial info is probably already in Notion. Your project plans, client lists, internal wikis, team knowledge, even your emails now (Notion Mail). That's not just random data, it's the core of your business.

And that's where Notion AI is a game-changer. It plugs right into all that existing info. So, it's not just some generic AI, it's your company's AI. It gets your context, how you work, and what your business actually needs. My biggest headache with AI tools like Google, OpenAI, or Anthropic is that my information is all over the place. Even though I really like what Gemini can do, Google doesn't have a project management tool, yet.

This is huge. We're only just seeing the beginning of what this can do. The idea is to have an AI that doesn't just find stuff for you but actually helps you create, keep things up-to-date, and automate tasks.

an AI that:

• Keeps your stuff current: It's not just about searching, it actually helps maintain and update your Notion pages and databases, especially with those automatic AI updates for databases.

• Searches everywhere: It can pull info from your company's workspace and mix it with relevant stuff from the web.

• Connects your tools: What if your chat and project management just became one thing? Think about how much smoother team collaboration would be if communication tools were deeply built into Notion. The Slack integration is awesome here because you can leverage public Slack channels to feed the AI even more knowledge. It basically knows everything that's been discussed!

• Handles the grunt work: Automated meeting summaries with live transcripts popping up right in your projects? Or smart scheduling that actually understands your team's workload? Yes, please.

• Gets smarter: As it develops, it could act like another member of your team, handling really complex info and tasks.

(and it’s unlimited usage for business profiles)

What's really cool is how AI is making Notion easier for everyone to use. Those complicated formulas or setting up intricate databases? Now, you can often just ask the AI to do it for you. I used to find building databases a bit of a pain because there was a learning curve, but now the AI can build them based on what you tell it. This makes all that powerful project management and knowledge organization stuff accessible to anyone, no matter how techy they are.

It really feels like Notion is shaping up to be the main operating system for businesses. With everything in one place and these growing AI smarts, it’s becoming essential for helping companies grow and succeed. It's becoming so much more important to have everything centralized rather than spread out across a million different apps and services. I've been searching for a system that can genuinely do this, and it feels like it's finally happening with Notion. Only one thing missing, communication, but apparently it’s coming soon.

📡 AI News worth knowing

_Microsoft

💼 Microsoft Cuts 6,000 Jobs in Strategic Overhaul

💼 Microsoft Cuts 6,000 Jobs in Strategic Overhaul

Microsoft is reducing its global workforce by approximately 6,000 employees, about 3% of its total staff. The layoffs, announced around May 13-14, 2025, are part of a broader "organizational change" aimed at streamlining operations and intensifying its focus on artificial intelligence, despite strong recent financial performance.

Key Details:

• Scope of Layoffs: The workforce reduction impacts various departments, levels, and geographic locations, including subsidiaries like LinkedIn and Xbox. Notably, nearly 2,000 positions are being cut in Microsoft's home state of Washington, with software engineering and product management roles being significantly affected. Reports indicate even some AI-focused positions were not spared.

• Company Rationale: Microsoft states the cuts are necessary to "best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace." The objectives include reducing management layers to create more agile teams, enhancing efficiency, and strategically realigning resources towards its significant investments in AI, which are reportedly around $80 billion for AI infrastructure.

• Timing and Context: This move represents Microsoft's largest workforce reduction since it cut 10,000 jobs in early 2023. The company emphasized that these are not performance-related cuts but structural adjustments. Employees in affected roles were asked to cease work immediately upon notification.

Why it matters:

These layoffs at one of the world's most valuable companies, even amidst profitability and a massive AI push, highlight several significant trends. It underscores a broader tech industry pattern of "strategic realignment" where companies are restructuring to fund costly AI development and improve long-term efficiency, sometimes leading to job cuts even in related fields.

The move raises questions about the evolving relationship between AI advancements and the human workforce, particularly as AI itself is used to automate tasks, including aspects of software development, CEO Satya Nadella noted that AI is writing a significant portion of code for some projects. While Microsoft aims to create leaner, more innovative teams by reducing management, the decision has understandably caused concern among employees and industry observers about job security and the human cost of rapid technological transformation. It signals Microsoft's aggressive strategy to reshape its operations for an AI-centric future.

_Anthropic

🚀 Anthropic Gears Up for Major Claude Offensive with Advanced Sonnet & Opus Models

Anthropic is reportedly poised to launch significantly upgraded versions of its Claude Sonnet and Opus models in the "upcoming weeks." This move signals a crucial effort to reassert its position in the highly competitive AI landscape, addressing concerns about its recent pace of innovation.

Key Details:

The upcoming advanced Claude models are expected to feature:

• Hybrid Thinking & Enhanced Tool Use: Models will reportedly be capable of dynamically alternating between reasoning and utilizing tools to perform tasks.

• Self-Correction Capabilities: A key improvement includes the ability for the models to "step back" and examine what went wrong, enabling self-correction.

• Autonomous Coding Powerhouse: For coding tasks, the new versions are said to be able to:

  • Test their own generated code.

  • Identify errors.

  • Troubleshoot issues using reasoning.

  • Implement corrections without human intervention.

• "Neptune" on the Horizon: An Anthropic model, codenamed "Neptune," is currently undergoing safety testing. Some speculate this codename hints at a potential Claude 3.8 release (Neptune being the 8th planet from the sun).

• Focus on Safety: Coinciding with these developments, Anthropic has launched a new bug bounty program specifically focused on testing the safety measures and principles embedded in Claude.

Why it matters:

While Anthropic has consistently been a top contender alongside Google and OpenAI, the company has notably been slower in bringing new models to market. The Claude 3.7 Sonnet release in February 2025 was its sole launch this year. With both major rivals also anticipated to release upgrades soon, these upcoming Sonnet and Opus enhancements are critical for Anthropic. The next few months are shaping up to be a "wild" period of intense competition and advancement in the AI industry, and these releases will be pivotal for Anthropic's standing.

🇻🇦 Pope Leo XIV Echoes Francis, Flags AI as Key Challenge for Humanity

TLDR: "In his initial vision for the papacy, Pope Leo XIV has signaled strong continuity with Pope Francis's core priorities, prominently identifying Artificial Intelligence as one of the most critical and defining challenges confronting humanity today, emphasizing threats to human dignity, justice, and labor."

In one of his first significant addresses outlining the vision for his papacy on Saturday, May 10, 2025, Pope Leo XIV affirmed his commitment to following key aspects of Pope Francis's work and highlighted Artificial Intelligence as a paramount concern for the global community. This stance positions the Church to continue its critical engagement with the rapid advancements in technology.

Key Details:

• Continuity with Pope Francis: Pope Leo XIV explicitly stated his intention to uphold core priorities established by his predecessor. Pope Francis had become

  increasingly vocal about the potential threats of AI, advocating for an international treaty to ensure its ethical development and human-centric application.

• AI as a Major Challenge: The new Pontiff identified AI as posing significant challenges to "defending human dignity, justice, and labor." This echoes Pope Francis's warnings that powerful AI risks reducing human relations to mere algorithms and must be guided by human values such as compassion, mercy, and morality.

• Historical Parallel: Referencing his namesake Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers' rights amidst the Industrial Revolution, Pope Leo XIV drew a parallel to the current "new industrial revolution" ushered in by AI. He stated, "In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence."

• Call for Human-Centric AI: The emphasis remains on ensuring that AI serves humanity and that critical decisions, especially those involving human life and societal well-being, are not ceded to machines.

Why it matters:

Pope Leo XIV's early focus on AI signals the Catholic Church's sustained and serious engagement with the ethical and societal implications of this transformative technology. By framing AI as a challenge on par with historical industrial shifts, the Pope is calling for profound reflection and responsible stewardship. His alignment with Pope Francis's previous calls for regulation and a human-centric approach suggests the Vatican will continue to be a significant moral voice in global discussions on AI governance, urging a path that safeguards human dignity and promotes the common good in an era of rapid technological advancement. This could influence global policy discussions and encourage a more ethical approach to AI development and deployment.

Creative AI News

_Higgsfield

✨ Higgsfield AI Revolutionizes Ad Creation with with their new “Ads” feature

TLDR: Higgsfield AI has launched "Higgsfield Ads," a new tool that transforms a single product photo into a professional, studio-quality video advertisement in mere seconds using a wide array of templates and motion styles.

Higgsfield AI is making waves in the advertising world with its latest innovation, Higgsfield Ads. This groundbreaking tool empowers users to effortlessly convert a simple product picture into a dynamic, cinematic advertisement. By uploading a photo and selecting from over 40 pre-designed templates, users can generate high-quality video spots almost instantly.

Key Details:

• Instant Studio-Quality Ads: Turn one product image into a complete video ad.

• Extensive Template Library: Choose from more than 40 templates across various categories.

• Dynamic Motion Styles: Over 80 baked-in motion styles to bring products to life.

• Diverse Template Categories: Options include "Product on Pedestal," "In-Hand Close-Up," "Lifestyle Freeze," "Location Shot," and "Face + Product."

Why it matters: This new feature significantly lowers the barrier to creating professional-looking advertisements.

• Studio-Quality Visuals: Achieve high-end aesthetics without the traditional costs or complexity.

• Rich Motion Options: The 80+ motion styles provide ample creative flexibility to make ads engaging.

Who’s already benefiting? Higgsfield Ads is already being adopted by a diverse range of users:

• Freelancers are leveraging it to produce and sell $1,000 ads.

• Small brands are using it to generate daily social media reels.

• UGC creators are scaling their content production.

• Agencies are rapidly A/B testing different ad hooks overnight.

Availability: Higgsfield Ads is accessible to users on the Pro & Ultimate plans.

Other News

• 🤖 GPT 4.1 - OpenAI’s advanced coding model, now available in ChatGPT

• 🔌 OpenAI released a new GitHub connector for its Deep Research feature, allowing the tool to leverage and answer questions about codebases.

• 🔌 Gemini released Github integration too - Connect Google’s advanced assistant to GitHub repos

• 🏄🏼‍♂️ Windsurf realeses new set of models built for software engineering:
  Unlike traditional code generation models, SWE-1 is engineered to handle the multifaceted nature of software engineering.

• 📹 Tencent Unveils HunyuanCustom: Open-Source AI for Hyper-Personalized Video Creation

QUICK HITS

Trending tools

• 🔌 Anthropic Web Search API - Connect Claude applications to the web

• 📝 Granola iOS - AI notepad for people in back-to-back meetings

• 🤖 Open Computer Agent - Hugging Face’s computer-using agent

• Infinite Chat API - Extend the context length of any model

  ...while saving 90% of your tokens and cost amd improving performance.

• Eleven Labs’s Infinite Soundboard - Describe the sound effects you want to hear, then SB-1 will generate them using our Text-to-SFX model.

Recommendations:

AI Insights / Tutorials / Worth Watching

• AI Agents Emergency Debate: Amjad Masad, Bret Weinstein, and Daniel Priestley debate the terrifying warning signs, and why you need to understand them now. It’s a great debate especially Bret Weinstein is fascinating.

• The AI Revolution Is Underhyped - Eric Schmidt: He makes the case that AI is wildly underhyped, as near-constant breakthroughs give rise to systems capable of doing even the most complex tasks on their own.

• Sam Altman on Building the ‘Core AI Subscription’ for Your Life: He envisions transforming ChatGPT into a deeply personal AI service that remembers your entire life's context, from conversations to emails, while working seamlessly across all services. Drawing from how younger users already treat AI as an operating system rather than just a search tool,

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