Not everyone is using AI like you think

Hello,

This is Simon with the latest edition of The Weekly. In these updates, I share key AI related stories from this week's news, list upcoming events, and share any longer form articles posted on the website.

P.S. — sharing this issue with a couple of people gets you a free guide. More on that partway down.

I've been speaking to a number of business users over the last week, asking them how they use AI in their day-to-day work to save time. I've been surprised by the range of responses. These are all technically literate people who are successful in their jobs, and I thought their answers would be somewhat similar and suggest high levels of usage and sophistication. Instead, I heard everything from "I just use Copilot to help me draft emails" and "I use it to create presentations from my notes" to "I've created a bot that sends me a brief before my external calls".

The Copilot user told me it was the only AI tool they were allowed to use. Given that, I'm not surprised they were using AI in fairly basic ways. I've heard plenty of anecdotal stories about the low quality of Copilot, and many people with access to it simply don't use it. The person with the daily meeting brief had access to Enterprise versions of both Claude and ChatGPT. It's a small sample, but it struck me that the person with the best access was also using it in the most inventive way.

I'm very curious about AI and have very good access to tools at work, so maybe I shouldn't set my expectations in line with how I use them. But through some of these conversations, it also interests me to hear that not all companies are pushing their employees to use AI. Some almost seem apathetic. Given how much is being said these days about AI spend needing to show a financial return, should we expect to hear that more companies are cooling on their teams using AI? Has AI's great promise already started to fade?

Personally, I think we're at an interesting point where companies and individuals are starting to find what a sensible balance looks like. We're pulling back from CEOs demanding their staff push as much work as possible onto AI, and changing the message to ask employees to be more selective and mindful of their token usage.

Where do you find yourself? Have you already pulled back from a previous high? Are you far more mindful of what you do these days?

People spend more time streaming than they do with cable, social media or video games, and advertisers know it. In fact, according to Advertiser Perceptions and Premion's 2026 CTV/OTT Advertiser Survey, 70% of advertisers are raising CTV budgets in 2026, with much of that budget diverted from social advertising.

For marketers who want a presence in streaming, Roku is the obvious place to go, with scale that speaks for itself. With more than 100 million households representing 47% of all streaming time in the US, Roku easily has more reach than every competitor.

With Roku Ads Manager, you can reach viewers across more than 100 premium apps in a single buy. Combine your customer data with Roku's insights to reach only the households you want, then measure and optimize to your heart's content.

Want to give it a try? Unleash your first campaign in just four steps: (1) Create your account, (2) define your objective and target audience, (3) upload creative, and (4) launch.

First-time spenders get a $5,000 match on the first $5,000 spent with code BEEHIIV5K. Terms apply.

Launch your campaign today.

NatWest cut around 1,000 full-time roles in the three months to September, bringing its 2026 total to 1,400, according to PA Media's coverage of its third-quarter results on 30 October. Operating pre-tax profit came in at £2.2 billion, and the bank has made about £420 million in cost savings. Chief executive Paul Thwaite said AI is "pervasive across the organisation" and is creating some new roles while changing others. The Telegraph reports that about a quarter of the cuts came from selling its Mentor consultancy, and overall headcount actually rose after the Evelyn Partners acquisition. Thwaite would not say whether more cuts are coming.

Why it matters: This is how AI-driven restructuring is going to look in most large UK organisations: steady trimming announced alongside healthy profits, with AI mentioned but no clear count of which jobs it accounts for. If your leadership talks about AI as more than an efficiency tool, staff will expect to see that reflected in where the new roles go, not just in where the old ones went.

US enterprise AI spending reached an estimated $177 billion by September 2026, up 5.4 times on 2025, according to Menlo Ventures' annual State of Enterprise AI report, published today. The share of enterprises paying for AI rose only from 55% to 65%, so most of the growth came from existing customers spending more. Three frontier labs, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, now take 69% of enterprise deployment spending, up from 50% last year. The report is based on a survey of nearly 400 US decision-makers plus Menlo's own market model, and Menlo is an investor in some of the firms it ranks highly.

Why it matters: The money is concentrating. Organisations that have already adopted AI are deepening their commitment, while a third still aren't paying for it at all. Spending is also consolidating around a handful of suppliers, so it's worth checking now how much your organisation depends on any one vendor.

Alphabet, the company that owns Google, suffered its worst day on record last Thursday, losing about $500 billion in market value, and the Nasdaq fell 2.9% on Friday as investors balked at AI infrastructure costs, according to TechCrunch. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft plan more than $740 billion of capital spending this year. Alphabet and Meta both reported negative free cash flow for the quarter, and Amazon's is negative $42 billion over the past 12 months. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, the big five have borrowed a combined $326 billion in 2026, roughly triple last year's total. Separately, the FT reports that Blackstone warned investors Anthropic may not qualify for an investment-grade rating as it heads towards an IPO.

Why it matters: The suppliers your organisation is building on are under growing pressure to show a financial return. Expect that to show up as price rises, tighter licensing terms and harder pushes to upsell AI features. It's a good moment to lock in pricing and build exit options into AI contracts.

Thanks for reading, and see you next Thursday.

Simon,

Was this email shared with you? If so subscribe here to get your own edition every Thursday.

You can also follow me on social media: