Together with

Good Afternoon, AI Architects and Happy New Year 🥂

2026 is here, AI isn’t slowing down, and today’s issue is a fun look at the AI moments that made 2025 chaotic, confusing, and impossible to ignore.

Let’s break it down.

Today’s Unfiltered Report Features:

• [FREE TRAINING] How to Build an AI System That Saves You Hours Every Week

• AI in 2025: Unhinged, Brilliant, Exhausting

• What’s Trending: Our 2026 AI Predictions

Read Time: 5 Minutes

AI in 2025: Unhinged, Brilliant, Exhausting

The Rise of AI-Generated Humans

Hyper-real AI-generated models went viral, blurring the line between real people and digital humans and kicking off endless debates about beauty standards, authenticity, and “this looks too real.”

The Great EM-Dash Meltdown

Thousands of LinkedIn posts confidently declared: “If I see an em dash, I KNOW it’s AI.”

Plot twist: writers have used em dashes for decades. Grammar became the battleground of the AI culture war.

AI influencers started landing real brand deals.

No schedules. No burnout. No content blocks.
Just perfectly on-brand posts while humans argued in the comments.

AI ads went fully uncanny.

Brands tested AI-generated commercials… and people immediately said,
“I don’t know why, but this makes me uncomfortable.”
Lesson learned: AI can execute, humans still have to direct.

Everyone suddenly had an “AI agent.”

Most of them were just… fancy automations with no context, no systems, and no idea what they were supposed to do. The word “agent” officially lost all meaning by Q4.

How to Build an AI System That Saves You Hours Every Week

If you’re using AI for quick tasks, random ideas, or a cute little burst of inspiration here and there, you’re not behind, you’re just stuck at the beginner level everyone starts at. The real magic happens when you stop treating AI like a search bar and start using it like a system that actually takes work off your plate.

In this live training, you’ll learn how to turn AI into an assistant that plans your tasks, organizes your brain, produces what you need on command, remembers your preferences, and supports your daily workflow without you re-explaining yourself every five minutes.

You’ll learn a simple 3-step process to:
→ build a real working AI assistant
→ turn it into a repeatable system you can rely on
→ drastically reduce the manual, repetitive, soul-sucking workload you shouldn’t be doing manually anyway

This session is for you if you’re tired of using AI in scattered, inconsistent ways and want structure, clarity, and an AI setup that actually does things not just generate ideas. No tech skills required. No coding.

Together with Gladly.ai

How much could AI save your support team?

Peak season is here. Most retail and ecommerce teams face the same problem: volume spikes, but headcount doesn't.

Instead of hiring temporary staff or burning out your team, there’s a smarter move. Let AI handle the predictable stuff, like answering FAQs, routing tickets, and processing returns, so your people focus on what they do best: building loyalty.

Gladly’s ROI calculator shows exactly what this looks like for your business: how many tickets AI could resolve, how much that costs, and what that means for your bottom line. Real numbers. Your data.

See your savings

What’s Trending

What’s Trending: Our 2026 AI Predictions

2026 won’t be about who uses AI. It’ll be about how they use it.

1. Human + AI becomes the real advantage
AI will take hours of work off your plate but human judgment, creativity, and relationship-building will be what separates leaders from everyone else. Speed without intention won’t win. Direction will.

2. AI rules and guardrails start to show up everywhere
In 2026, more states and countries will roll out clearer guidelines around AI use covering things like data privacy, disclosure, and accountability. This won’t stop AI adoption, but it will force people to be more intentional about how they use it.

3. AI systems beat AI prompts
The gap widens between businesses copying prompts and those training AI on their voice, workflows, and standards. Context becomes more valuable than tools.

4. Small teams pull further ahead
Lean businesses using AI well will outperform larger teams still relying on manual processes and bloated decision chains.

5. AI exposes weak operations
AI doesn’t fix broken systems it magnifies them. Clean workflows scale fast. Messy ones get louder.

6. Time becomes the most valuable KPI
The biggest winners won’t just make more money. They’ll reclaim 5–15 hours a week and reinvest it where humans matter most.

7. AI outrage will remain a full-time LinkedIn job
There will still be daily posts about how AI is ruining creativity, replacing jobs, or “not working like it should.” Meanwhile, the people quietly using it well will be saving time, building leverage, and moving ahead.

That’s a Wrap for Today 👋

Thanks for reading see you tomorrow!

Your Future AI Team

Have feedback or AI tips? Reply to this newsletter, we read every one.