The storage you pay for is not yours

Do this: Input costs are climbing again. Draft your customer price-increase letter now, while you are calm, instead of the week you have to send it.

PASTE THIS

You are drafting a short letter to my customers about a price increase.
Business: [what we do]. New prices start [date]. Old price held until [date] for anyone who asks.
Rules:
1. No apology. One plain sentence on the reason, no blaming suppliers.
2. Say what changes, from when, and what stays the same.
3. Offer one way to keep the old price: annual prepay, smaller scope, or a bundle.
4. Keep it to half a page, readable by a twelve-year-old.
Then give a three-line version for a text message, and a two-line version for the invoice footer.

You'll get: Three ready-to-send versions: the email, a text message, and the one line that goes at the foot of every invoice.

The exit sheet: what to write down before a vendor changes the deal

Open one page and fill it in for every tool that holds your data or runs a process you depend on.

1. The tool, and what it does in one line.
2. Who owns the login: a person's name, never a shared inbox.
3. Where the data sits: vendor cloud, your kit, or both.
4. How you export everything, and the date you last tested that export.
5. The notice the vendor must give before it changes price or terms.
6. What breaks on day one if you cancel.
7. The yearly cost, and the renewal date. Then the test: could someone who has never used the tool follow this page and be running the export inside one hour? If not, the page is a wish, not a plan. Review it on the first working day of each quarter. It takes fifteen minutes.

The IMF calls AI a slow-moving tsunami for jobs

The IMF's chief told a World Bank jobs council that AI is hitting labour markets like a slow-moving tsunami, with young workers most exposed, CNBC reports. So what: your next hire is the test. Before you post a junior role this quarter, name the parts you still want a human to learn on. Automate every entry rung and you have nobody to promote later.

OpenAI says it took down a network of AI-built fake shops

OpenAI published how it disrupted 'false front' operations: fake businesses and storefronts assembled with AI tools, OpenAI reports. So what: adopt one rule this week and tell the whole team. No change to bank details, payment or login is ever confirmed over chat or email, only by calling the number already on the invoice.

Nadella: assume every AI model is compromised

Satya Nadella says firms should assume any AI model can be compromised, and wants an 'emergency brake' that humans control, per The Verge and TechCrunch. So what: this month, list every tool that can read your files or act in your name, and remove the access you cannot name an owner for. Unowned access is the access an intruder keeps.

When a vendor changed your plan this year, what did you do?

A. Read it and moved on

B. Asked for the old terms in writing

C. Found an alternative supplier

D. It has not happened yet

Reply with one letter — results next issue.

Microsoft is cutting the cloud storage included with several of its business plans. How much can an affected subscriber lose?

Answer tomorrow — and no, we are not printing it here.

YESTERDAY'S ANSWER

HPE's networking chief says agents will close every IT trouble ticket without a human inside how many years?

Two to three years. HPE networking chief Rami Rahim told The Register that 70 to 80 percent of tickets already need no human, and that "within two to three years, we'll have no issues that require humans" — hardware swaps excepted.

Forwarded this from a friend? This is where owners put AI to work without the enterprise price tag.