What We Learned This Week | 9-21-25
Anthropic Economic Index, How AI is disrupting ERPs, What Companies with Successful AI Pilots do Differently, How People are using ChatGPT, and more...
Below are some of the articles and podcasts which caught my attention past week. As always, welcome your feedback and ideas.
Articles
Anthropic Economic Index: Tracking AI's role in the US and global economy | Anthropic | Anthropic’s Economic Index shows AI adoption is highly uneven—wealthier countries and U.S. states use Claude far more, with broader task diversity, while lower-income regions lag. Usage is shifting from human-assisted to more automated tasks, especially in business contexts, which may widen economic and productivity gaps.
Roadmap: AI systems of action | BVP | AI is degrading the traditional moats in the system of record market. It’s creating opportunities for AI-native entrants to disrupt incumbents in many of the largest markets in software.
What Companies with Successful AI Pilots Do Differently | HBR | Companies with successful AI pilots lean on strong leadership, not just tech — leaders who model AI use, link pilots tightly to value, and push for scalability.
The Bitter Lesson versus The Garbage Can | Ethan Mollick | Organizations are often chaotic “garbage cans”—lots of unwritten rules, duplication, undefined processes—which hampers scaling AI unless you map real operations.
How People Use ChatGPT | OpenAI | ChatGPT now reaches ~10% of the world’s adults; use has grown fast, especially for non-work purposes, though work-related uses also continue growing.
Podcasts/Videos
All-Summit 2025 | All-in Podcast | Talks from the All-In Summit 2025, exploring how AI, business, policy, and culture are intersecting—highlighting both opportunities (efficiency, innovation) and risks (ethics, regulation). It emphasizes that success will depend not just on tech, but on leadership, trust, and navigating the social implications of AI.
Aaron Levie: Why Startups Win In The AI Era | Y Combinator | What it means to adapt a company over the long term, the hard lessons of staying relevant across multiple technology waves, and why AI represents the most transformative shift yet.
The Future of Software Creation with Replit CEO Amjad Masad | Y Combinator | Why the value of traditional software will approach zero, fundamentally reshaping how companies are built and how work gets done.
The State of AI Agents in 2025 and How to Use Them | The Next Wave | How AWS is pioneering true agentic AI—systems that use LLM-powered reasoning, autonomy, and reflection to tackle everything from Formula One race analytics to massive code migrations and breakthrough drug discovery.
Why 90% of Founders Build Startups Wrong, AI Talent War, Customer Service War | 20VC | Founders often misprioritize—they build for fancy product features rather than validating core customer pain points, which leads to scaling the wrong thing. AI growth rates seem sustainable, but success depends on acquiring and retaining top talent, and being strategic about where AI actually delivers value.
A Book We are Reading in September
Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI | Anil Ananthaswamy | A rich, narrative explanation of the mathematics that has brought us machine learning and the ongoing explosion of artificial intelligence.
A Quote We Are Pondering This Week
“"If you love them more than the fight, end the fight. An apology loses its warmth if it waits too long. Do it now, before the years turn cold." - James Clear
Upcoming Interesting Data & AI Conferences
T&D World | 9/23 - 9/25 | Phoenix
GAI World 2025 | 9/29 - 9/30 | Boston
Boston AI Week 2025 | 9/29 - 10/3 | Boston
Data & AI World Tour 2025 | 10/8 | Boston
CDAO Fall 2025 | 10/22 - 10/23 | Boston
UA Week 2025 | 10/28-10/30 | Austin
AWS re:invent 2025 | 12/1-12/5 | Vegas
The AI Summit NY | 12/10 - 12/11 | NYC
#LetsGrowTogether