Issue 001

The hardware is interesting, but we're more interested in what it means for software. A phone that changes shape while you're using it introduces a whole new collection of ways for apps to behave badly.

We think that's about to become every app's problem. Apple has a habit of arriving late to a category and then making its version feel like the new normal. If the Duo sells, designing an app that works beautifully folded and unfolded could quickly become another basic expectation.

That's the interesting gap. Individuals are already reporting significant productivity gains, but saving someone an hour doesn't automatically make the organisation an hour faster. Most businesses have introduced new tools without redesigning the work around them.

We think that's where being small helps. A large organisation needs a programme to change how its people work; a small business can decide on Monday and be doing it by Friday. It's how we went from chatting to AI, to handing it our most time-consuming jobs, to leaving it running unattended.

Whilst it's unlikely to get anywhere, ideas like these tend to catch on at some time or another, and the bits around employment caught our attention. AI has entered most businesses one tool at a time, rather than through some grand company strategy, so plenty are already using it without ever really deciding where the boundaries are.

We think we're approaching the point where “What are we actually comfortable letting AI do?” becomes a question every business needs an answer to.