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

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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.

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  1. Issue

    Developer Confidence in AI Is Dropping, Even as Use Rises

    AI has become a go-to tool for writing code, but the developers using it are growing more skeptical of its output. New research from Stack Overflow reveals 84 percent of programmers saying they’re planning to or are using AI in their workflows, up eight points from last year. Yet nearly half—46 percent—say they no longer […]
  2. Issue

    Adobe Firefly Can Now Generate Sound Effects With Just a Prompt or Your Voice

    Adobe is turning concept into creation: After teasing its experimental sound effects tool, Project Super Sonic, last October, the company is now bringing it to life with a launch inside its Firefly app. Available in beta, the Generate Sound Effects feature does what it says: it quickly creates custom sound effects, atmospheric background noise, and […]
  3. Issue

    Slack’s New AI Search Targets a Familiar Pain Point: Too Many Apps, Not Enough Answers

    Slack is turning more to artificial intelligence to streamline the daily grind at work. The Salesforce-owned company announced a range of new AI-powered features on Thursday to help teams “move faster, stay aligned, and focus on what matters.” One of the most significant improvements is the addition of enterprise-grade search that looks for information across […]
  4. Issue

    What Salesforce Discovered by Letting AI Run Its Help Portal

    Salesforce isn’t shy about how it’s using its products, especially its agent development platform. When it comes to embracing AI agents, the enterprise tech firm has openly touted that it’s “drinking its own champagne.” Since Agentforce’s launch, CEO Marc Benioff has used every opportunity to showcase how the service is helping bolster his company’s help […]
  5. Issue

    Zendesk Acquires HyperArc to Build AI-Powered Customer Intelligence

    Zendesk announced on Monday that it has acquired HyperArc, a startup building an AI-first business intelligence platform capable of learning from teams. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Zendesk says it plans to bolster its analytics capabilities with HyperArc’s HyperGraph engine and real-time generative AI-powered insights. “GenAI is transforming analytics, making it […]
  6. 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. […]
  7. 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 […]
  8. 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. […]
  9. 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] […]
  10. 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 […]

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

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