Field Notes.

QuickBooks Online serves as the financial system of record for millions of small businesses. Intuit has invested heavily in embedding generative artificial intelligence into that software,...

Kurt Fischman · Nov 13, 2026

Every managing partner knows the sinking feeling of discovering an untouched lead. A prospective client with a six-figure personal injury claim or a high-stakes commercial dispute filled out a...

Kurt Fischman · Nov 12, 2026

When inbound calls ring through to voicemail during the workday, the revenue loss feels immediate and painful. For a founder-operator running a business between $1M and $10M in revenue, missing three...

Kurt Fischman · Nov 11, 2026

Every week, an operator running a three-million-dollar to ten-million-dollar company gets hit with the same sales pitch from a dozen different angles. One startup promises an autonomous sales...

Kurt Fischman · Nov 10, 2026

When software vendors pitch automated workflows to founder-operators, they almost always anchor the conversation on API pricing. They point out that processing an invoice or extracting data from an...

Kurt Fischman · Nov 6, 2026

When a founder signs up for conventional business software, the bargain is straightforward: you pay a monthly fee per user, and your team operates the tool. If the software is confusing or a workflow...

Kurt Fischman · Nov 5, 2026

When a software vendor demonstrates an AI agent, the presentation usually looks effortless. The sales representative feeds the model three carefully formatted inquiries, the agent responds in...

Kurt Fischman · Nov 4, 2026

When software vendors add AI agents to their platforms, the commercial goal's simple: keep your team and your customer data inside their walled garden. HubSpot's Agent Hub consolidates pre-built...

Kurt Fischman · Oct 26, 2026

When evaluating AI tools to streamline business operations, software subscription pricing creates a powerful illusion. Lindy advertises self-service agent software starting at thirty dollars per user...

Kurt Fischman · Oct 4, 2026

Founders often begin an automation search with a tidy calculation on a whiteboard. An operations coordinator earns $60,000 a year. An AI agent platform costs $1,500 a month, or $18,000 a year. By...

Kurt Fischman · Oct 4, 2026

When a founder-operator introduces AI agents into business operations, the initial instinct is almost always protective: require an owner or senior manager to sign off on every individual action. It...

Kurt Fischman · Oct 4, 2026

Most AI business cases presented to business owners are built on an accounting illusion. A vendor or internal advocate tallies up minutes saved across routine tasks, multiplies that time by an...

Kurt Fischman · Sep 22, 2026

When a founder signs a contract for a static website or an accounting software rollout, the finish line is straightforward. The pages render, the bank feeds sync, the invoices reconcile, and the...

Kurt Fischman · Sep 21, 2026

When Anthropic shipped Claude Cowork, it gave knowledge workers a tool that feels like a breakthrough. Instead of pasting paragraphs back and forth into a browser window, you can point Claude at...

Kurt Fischman · Sep 14, 2026

Almost every quote you'll see for an AI agent prices one line: the subscription, or the model usage per task. An agent, in the sense that matters here, is software that carries out a multi-step job...

Kurt Fischman · Sep 10, 2026

Picture the ordinary version of the problem. It's a Friday evening. An AI agent your business bought in March, the one that answers inbound calls and books appointments, has just booked three jobs...

Kurt Fischman · Sep 9, 2026

Most lists of this kind fail the same way. They name a department, attach the word automation, and leave you guessing what the software actually does on a Tuesday afternoon. So every job here is...

Kurt Fischman · Sep 9, 2026

Type the question into a search box and you get forty pages explaining that assistants are reactive and agents are proactive. Fine. Accurate, even. It's also the least useful thing anyone can tell a...

Kurt Fischman · Sep 8, 2026

Search the phrase and you'll hit a product category first. In April 2026 Anthropic launched Managed Agents on Claude, which InfoQ described as a managed execution layer that separates agent logic...

Kurt Fischman · Sep 8, 2026

An AI agent is software that doesn't just answer questions, it takes actions: it reads your data, calls your tools, and changes things in your systems. That last part is the whole security problem. A...

Kurt Fischman · Sep 7, 2026