A newsletter by Ken Yeung

The AI
Economy

A sharp, curated look at the stories that reveal how AI is rewriting business, work, technology, and culture.

Ken Yeung

Subscribe free → Browse issues ↓

What you get

Built for people who work with AI, not just read about it.

Reported, not aggregated

Enterprise AI coverage from a journalist who covered the space before “generative AI” was a mainstream phrase. Sourced, contextual, with a point of view.

Platform strategy focus

Beyond the product announcements. Analysis of how AI is restructuring enterprise workflows, editorial operations, and the economics of content at scale.

Written for practitioners

Not for the hype-chasers. For the people who have to act on it.

Archive

Every issue.

All issues published to date. New issues arrive every week.

Open on Substack ↗
  1. Issue

    Ai2’s FlexOlmo Lets You Co-Develop AI Language Models Without Sharing Data

    Ai2 has unveiled FlexOlmo, a new framework that lets multiple organizations jointly develop language models without requiring centralized data pooling. Ideal for those in regulated industries, it provides developers with granular control over how and when their data influences the model, addressing long-standing concerns regarding privacy, IP protection, and data sovereignty in collaborative AI projects. […]
  2. Issue

    Genies’ AI Avatar Tech Coming to Unity Editor in 2026

    Genies, a gaming technology company, is partnering with Unity to bring its customizable AI avatars and asset creation tools to Unity’s Asset Store and Unity Editor. Developers will now have access to game, entertainment, celebrity, and sports IP-driven avatars that they can incorporate into games. The expectation is that this will free resources up to […]
  3. Issue

    Ai2 Brings OLMo, Molmo, and Tülu AI Models to Enterprise Teams with Cirrascale Deal

    Non-profit AI lab Ai2 is partnering with infrastructure platform provider Cirrascale in a move to commercialize its open-source models. OLMo 2, Molmo, and Tülu 3 can now be run via API on Cirrascale’s Inference Platform, enabling companies to avoid the need to deploy the models themselves and the associated costs of in-house systems or expertise. […]
  4. Issue

    Hugging Face Ends HuggingChat, Teases More Integrated Future

    Hugging Face has shut down HuggingChat, at least for now. The open-source AI platform launched its ChatGPT-rival chatbot in April 2023 to demonstrate the power of open-source models. Chief Technology Officer Julien Chaumond announced the closure on LinkedIn, explaining that the team is “making room for something new and more integrated with the [Hugging Face] […]
  5. Issue

    Ai2’s SciArena Benchmarks AI for Science, Inspired by ChatBot Arena

    Nonprofit AI lab Ai2 has launched a new platform to help researchers evaluate which AI models perform best on scientific literature tasks. Called SciArena, it’s an open, collaborative service that enables head-to-head comparisons of large language models. Think ChatBot Arena—but built for the scientific research community. “Measuring progress in using AI agents for literature-grounded scientific […]
  6. Issue

    Daily AI Users at Work Report Higher Productivity and Job Satisfaction, Says Slack

    Marc Benioff’s vision of a digital labor force is no longer hypothetical—it’s starting to take shape. Days after his company, Salesforce, launched its fourth-generation agentic development platform capable of scaling AI agents across business use cases, its subsidiary Slack released its latest Workforce Index report, which shows AI gaining acceptance among workers. According to the […]
  7. Issue

    Salesforce Wants to Scale Digital Labor. Agentforce 3 Is the Plan.

    Salesforce is scaling up its agentic development platform, adding features to help organizations embrace the hybrid workforce paradigm. Agentforce 3 is the latest in a series of rapid-fire innovations from the enterprise tech giant. This release introduces a new Command Center for overseeing AI agents, adds support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) across Agentforce […]
  8. Issue

    Okta’s New Protocol Tackles the Security Blind Spot of AI Agents in the Enterprise

    Identity and security platform Okta is introducing a new protocol designed to protect organizations as they transition to an agentic future. Cross App Access is created to minimize security risks as teams leverage these autonomous bots for work. The company claims it’ll remove the need for repetitive authorization consent screens and make agents more secure […]
  9. Issue

    Inside AWS’s Global Accelerator for the Generative AI Era

    Last December, I sat inside the theatre at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the home of world-famous magician Shin Lim. Only, I’m not there to see a sleight-of-hand spectacle—I’m there to watch the inaugural “Unicorn Tank,” a startup pitch competition put on by Amazon Web Services (AWS) held during its re:Invent conference. […]
  10. Issue

    From Sunday Scaries to Late-Night Meetings: Microsoft Confirms the Workday Has No Off Switch

    The traditional 9-to-5 workday is rapidly unraveling, replaced by what Microsoft calls the “infinite workday,” a nonstop cycle that begins even before we’re out of bed and stretches late into the night and also into the weekends. The line between work and life has all but disappeared. Microsoft argues that without meaningful change, this trend […]

Peer review

What the AIs say.*

We asked the leading AI tools to weigh in on The AI Economy. Their ratings speak for themselves. (Results may vary depending on training data and general disposition toward newsletters.)

Claude — Anthropic

★★★★★

5.0

out of 5

“[Its] strength lies in its ability to cover both technical developments and business implications of AI, making it valuable for a wide audience ranging from tech enthusiasts to business executives.”

ChatGPT — OpenAI

★★★★★

5.0

out of 5

“Expertly combines in-depth interviews and industry analysis, making it a must-read for AI enthusiasts and professionals.”

Gemini — Google

★★★★★

5.0

out of 5

“Provides valuable insights and analysis, making it a great resource for anyone interested in AI.”

Copilot — Microsoft

★★★★★

5.0

out of 5

“A sharp, reporter‑caliber intelligence brief for the AI era—fast, authoritative, and genuinely ahead of the curve.”

* Disclaimer: My newsletter has not been actually endorsed by OpenAI, Google, or Anthropic. I solicited reviews from their respective gen AI services. Sounded cool though, huh?

Questions

Common questions.

  1. What is The AI Economy?

    A newsletter covering consumer and enterprise AI, platform strategy, and the companies reshaping how work gets done. Reported, not aggregated — written by a technology journalist who has covered the space since before generative AI was a mainstream phrase.

  2. How often does it publish?

    Enough to keep you ahead, never enough to clutter your inbox. You'll also get first-look coverage and original interviews whenever the story is worth your time—which, lately, is often. Nothing filler-grade goes out under this masthead. A weekly roundup is delivered Fridays on LinkedIn.

  3. Is it free?

    Yes. Every issue is free. Subscribe on Substack and it arrives in your inbox. No paywall, no premium tier. If that changes, subscribers will be notified well in advance.

  4. How is this different from other AI newsletters?

    The AI Economy explores the people building AI and the reasons behind what they build. I'm interested in how enterprise teams are actually deploying AI, where the editorial and operational models are breaking down, and what platform-level shifts mean for practitioners making decisions this quarter. It is written for people doing the work, not watching it from the outside. My goal is to not focus just on what's being announced, but why it exists and why we should care. The stories are what you'd expect to read on Inc. and First Round Review or see on "60 Minutes."

  5. Can we pitch you stories?

    Yes, I do accept embargoed news and exclusives. Please reach out with your announcements, launches, and story ideas—email me or use this form. I also accept tips securely via Signal at @kenyeung.888.

  6. Where can I read past issues?

    The full archive is listed above on this page. All issues are also available on Substack. The plan is to host the canonical archive here on thelettertwo.com as the publication grows — independent of any platform.

  7. Can I republish or cite content from the newsletter?

    Yes, with attribution. Short excerpts with a link back to the original issue are fine. For longer republication or syndication, reach out via LinkedIn.

The AI Economy

AI Moves Fast. I Separate Signal From Spin.

A sharp, curated look at the stories that reveal how AI is rewriting business, work, technology, and culture.

Join 3,000+ readers gaining practical wisdom.

No spam. Unsubscribe any time.

Read on Substack ↗ Browse all issues ↓