One model, 1,000 contractors

Do this: Open your card statement and list every software or AI subscription you pay for, with the monthly amount. Two minutes, and most owners find between $40 and $200 a month they can cut.

PASTE THIS

Act as a skeptical operations manager. Here is my list of recurring software subscriptions with the monthly cost. For each one, give me a single line on what it is probably for and a verdict: keep, downgrade, consolidate, or cancel. Then rank the list by dollars saved per month, and write a two-line cancellation email for the top three. Ask me no questions; if a row is unclear, mark it 'check the statement'.

You'll get: A ranked cut list with a dollar figure at the top, and cancellation emails ready to send. Owners who do this once usually find two or three tools nobody has opened in months. Do it before your next renewal date.

Seven lines to add before you sign the next AI contract

Copy these into the next software or AI agreement you sign. All seven are ordinary asks. A vendor that refuses four of them has told you what you need to know.

1. Price cap: yearly increases limited to a stated percentage, in writing.
2. Exit: 30 days' notice, no termination fee, and your data out in a usable format.
3. Training: nothing you enter is used to train models, ever.
4. Deletion: your data is gone within 30 days of you leaving, and someone confirms it.
5. Breach clock: how many hours before they must tell you, and who calls.
6. Notice: you get told before the model you rely on is retired or changed.
7. Support: a human reply inside one business day, from someone named.

Wall Street stops taking AI on faith

Barclays downgraded Dell, HPE and NetApp on concern that enterprise AI adoption is running behind the sales pitch, and Dell fell 11% in a day, CNBC reports. The other half of the same week: Anthropic is out wooing investors ahead of a stock market debut, the BBC reports. So what: before you renew any AI contract this quarter, ask for a price cap and a 30-day exit in writing. Vendors need your signature to prove payback to their investors.

Regulators want the safety files

The FTC sent civil subpoenas to OpenAI and Anthropic, with demands running to about 50 pages on safety incidents and consumer protection, Axios reports. A federal probe into your vendor's safety record is a question about your contract, not their reputation. So what: before your next AI purchase, get two things in writing, how fast they must tell you about a breach and whether your data trains their models.

A recorder on every wrist

Amazon launched two always-listening wearables starting at $75, built to hear the day and act on it, TechCrunch reports, now pointed at buying things on your behalf, per The Verge. Staff can wear a recorder into a client meeting without telling anyone. So what: this week, add one line to the handbook, nothing that records goes into a client meeting, and check whether your state demands everyone's consent.

How far back do your old customer records go?

A. Everything, going back years

B. Three to five years of files

C. A set retention period, deleted on schedule

D. Nobody has ever checked

Reply with one letter — results next issue.

Amazon's two new Bee wearables cost $75 and $100. What is the monthly fee for the service that turns what they hear into notes?

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

YESTERDAY'S ANSWER

GlobalFoundries plans two new chip plants in New York, backed mostly by one government. Which country is putting up the money, and what stake does the United States take?

Japan. Bloomberg reported that Japan is backing as much as $21 billion for two GlobalFoundries plants in Malta, New York, and that the United States will take a 4% stake in the company.

Want a look at where AI could save your team 5+ hours a week? Reply AUDIT — the desk takes a handful of these a month.