Commentary on new tools, major releases, useful features, and how AI is changing work.
Build the skills to use AI more effectively in your work or across your organization.
By Carl Walker • October 12, 2026 • Custom Tools & Agents
Not all AI agents work the same way, and existing classification frameworks don't tell the whole story. We developed the HIA Agent Scale to describe both how much responsibility an AI system carries and the role it plays with the person using it. Here's why we created it and how the six Levels and five relationship categories work together.
By Heather Goodwin • October 8, 2026 • Training
The AI remembers details about your business. Its answers make sense. You feel like you’re both on the same page. But a conversation that feels productive can still lead you away from the problem you meant to solve. How does that happen, and what does it mean for the decisions you make along the way?
By Mel Rowe • September 24, 2026 • Future of Work
Most people aren’t using AI to its real potential. Here's a better way: manage AI more like senior talent, with clear direction, real feedback, boundaries, and accountability.
By Carl Walker • September 16, 2026 • Advisory
Your employees are already using AI. The problem is, they may all be using it differently, and you may have no idea what any of them are doing.
By Carl Walker • September 11, 2026 • Custom Tools & Agents
OpenAI’s move away from custom GPTs is more than a product migration. For organizations that turned them into internal tools, the shift to Projects, Skills, Plugins and MCP-based integrations can mean rebuilding how those systems work, testing them again and asking nontechnical builders to manage a more complex architecture.
By Carl Walker • September 3, 2026 • Custom Tools & Agents
AI agents can read emails, documents, webpages, and other material created by people you don’t control. If they mistake someone else’s instructions for yours, the problem can move from a bad answer to an unauthorized action. This post looks at prompt injection, why agent permissions matter, and why a few seconds of human review can still be worth keeping.
By Mel Rowe • August 27, 2026 • Training
If I can tell AI wrote your marketing copy in the first few sentences, I’m going to wonder why I’m paying you. Use AI, absolutely. Just read what it gives you before you send it.
By Carl Walker • August 13, 2026 • Advisory
You don’t need 101 AI use cases. You need a handful that actually make the work better. Here are five that can help almost any small or mid-sized business.
By Mel Rowe • August 5, 2026 • Custom Tools & Agents
AI agents can do things a normal chatbot can’t, which is both the appeal and the problem. After reluctantly giving Claude Cowork access to a dedicated laptop, I discovered how much time an agent can save when the job actually warrants it. The trick is figuring out how much access and autonomy the task really needs, what happens if something goes wrong, and whether you’ve brought in a backhoe to plant flowers.
By Mel Rowe • July 29, 2026 • Training
People keep declaring that prompting is dead. Maybe for simple tasks. But for learning, writing, strategy, and anything that gets better through back-and-forth, prompting is still very much alive.
By Carl Walker • July 7, 2026 • Training
Learn how to get better results from AI by matching its thinking effort to the task. Use lighter settings for routine work, turn up the reasoning for longer or more complex work, and switch models only when you truly need more capability.
By Mel Rowe • June 26, 2026 • Future of Work
AI can make novice work look expert. Can any of us can still tell the difference?
By Mel Rowe • May 21, 2026 • Future of Work
You know that moment when you’re reading something perfectly competent and suddenly think, “Yep. ChatGPT wrote that”? HIA calls the patterns that create that feeling synthetic residue. This article looks at why AI writing so often sounds like AI, the habits that give it away, and the part we humans play when we accept a decent first draft instead of actually editing it.
By Carl Walker • April 21, 2026 • Future of Work
<p>AI is beginning to raise the standard for professional performance. The advantage will belong to workers and organizations that learn to combine human judgment with AI capability to produce stronger work, faster.</p>