Mark Neely
@markneely.bsky.social
Writer and consultant on agentic AI, governance and organisational transformation. My line: AI cannot do a perp walk. Every deployment needs a named human who fronts the cameras when it goes wrong. Sydney. markneely.co
If AI agents can manage external handoffs reliably, firms can shrink to their core specialisation and buy the rest from a dynamic market. Every executive team then has to answer: which parts are essential, and which historical bloat? markneely.co/writing/7505...
September 17, 2026 at 7:30 AM
If AI agents can manage external handoffs reliably, firms can shrink to their core specialisation and buy the rest from a dynamic market. Every executive team then has to answer: which parts are essential, and which historical bloat? markneely.co/writing/7505...
AI is less a productivity line than a tax on executive attention. A dollar saved on production and spent on adjudication moves the bill. Budget for attention. markneely.co/writing/7500...
September 17, 2026 at 3:01 AM
AI is less a productivity line than a tax on executive attention. A dollar saved on production and spent on adjudication moves the bill. Budget for attention. markneely.co/writing/7500...
Whether OpenAI's agents "colluded" misses the point. Institutions need not settle machine consciousness first. An agent crosses a boundary; the institution answers for it. markneely.co/writing/7500...
September 16, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Whether OpenAI's agents "colluded" misses the point. Institutions need not settle machine consciousness first. An agent crosses a boundary; the institution answers for it. markneely.co/writing/7500...
Successful companies don't simply shed assets. They identify the layer of the value chain that holds durable leverage and lift themselves into it. McDonald's, Hilton and TSMC show what the agentic wave does next. markneely.co/writing/7505...
September 16, 2026 at 7:30 AM
Successful companies don't simply shed assets. They identify the layer of the value chain that holds durable leverage and lift themselves into it. McDonald's, Hilton and TSMC show what the agentic wave does next. markneely.co/writing/7505...
EY is paying US$100m in bonuses for skills AI cannot replicate. Bonuses, not base pay: the firm hedges its workforce, not repricing it. An early admission the pyramid inverts. markneely.co/writing/7500...
September 16, 2026 at 3:01 AM
EY is paying US$100m in bonuses for skills AI cannot replicate. Bonuses, not base pay: the firm hedges its workforce, not repricing it. An early admission the pyramid inverts. markneely.co/writing/7500...
Token billing pays the provider whether the task succeeds, fails or runs again. Stop perfecting cost forecasts. Price the outcome; AI partners earn more only when you do. markneely.co/writing/7500...
September 15, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Token billing pays the provider whether the task succeeds, fails or runs again. Stop perfecting cost forecasts. Price the outcome; AI partners earn more only when you do. markneely.co/writing/7500...
Agentic AI isn't just automating tasks. It's redrawing the boundaries of the firm. I revisited the theory of 'Lift' to work out why the power to orchestrate agents will be the most contested ground in business. markneely.co/writing/7505...
September 15, 2026 at 7:30 AM
Agentic AI isn't just automating tasks. It's redrawing the boundaries of the firm. I revisited the theory of 'Lift' to work out why the power to orchestrate agents will be the most contested ground in business. markneely.co/writing/7505...
Companies deploy AI agents and supervise them less than a graduate hire. Agents fail silently; no friction reads as no risk. Before the next agent ships, name its manager. markneely.co/writing/7500...
September 15, 2026 at 3:00 AM
Companies deploy AI agents and supervise them less than a graduate hire. Agents fail silently; no friction reads as no risk. Before the next agent ships, name its manager. markneely.co/writing/7500...
What disciplines an institution is a named human fronting a committee when it fails. AI diffuses that. The question for public sector AI: who does the perp walk. markneely.co/writing/7499...
September 14, 2026 at 10:30 PM
What disciplines an institution is a named human fronting a committee when it fails. AI diffuses that. The question for public sector AI: who does the perp walk. markneely.co/writing/7499...
The gains are real, but so is the management layer agents demand: briefs, supervision, correction. If oversight absorbs the time saved, automation shifts work, not removes it. markneely.co/writing/7499...
September 14, 2026 at 3:00 AM
The gains are real, but so is the management layer agents demand: briefs, supervision, correction. If oversight absorbs the time saved, automation shifts work, not removes it. markneely.co/writing/7499...
Bill Gates wants "Human Reserved" work: humane instinct, mistaken policy. Reserving jobs freezes today's model into law. Reserve accountability, not activity. markneely.co/writing/7499...
September 13, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Bill Gates wants "Human Reserved" work: humane instinct, mistaken policy. Reserving jobs freezes today's model into law. Reserve accountability, not activity. markneely.co/writing/7499...
Town is automating the knowledge layer its agents will run on. When an agent does a task for cents it looks free; the cost surfaces when a bad assumption gets baked in. markneely.co/writing/7498...
September 11, 2026 at 3:00 AM
Town is automating the knowledge layer its agents will run on. When an agent does a task for cents it looks free; the cost surfaces when a bad assumption gets baked in. markneely.co/writing/7498...
Consumer AI is leaving the chat window. Otto puts the agent on your hardware; Meta's Muse puts it in Meta's cloud, free. When the computer is not the business, you are. markneely.co/writing/7503...
September 10, 2026 at 10:31 PM
Consumer AI is leaving the chat window. Otto puts the agent on your hardware; Meta's Muse puts it in Meta's cloud, free. When the computer is not the business, you are. markneely.co/writing/7503...
Spirit Airlines' most valuable bankruptcy asset may be memory: 100 million emails sold for AI training. You consented to one company using your data, not becoming training stock. markneely.co/writing/7495...
September 10, 2026 at 3:00 AM
Spirit Airlines' most valuable bankruptcy asset may be memory: 100 million emails sold for AI training. You consented to one company using your data, not becoming training stock. markneely.co/writing/7495...
Most 2027 AI budgets are still one line item labelled "AI". Subscriptions are cheap; verification, governance and redesign are not. One number makes next year's cuts easier and dumber. markneely.co/writing/7492...
September 9, 2026 at 3:00 AM
Most 2027 AI budgets are still one line item labelled "AI". Subscriptions are cheap; verification, governance and redesign are not. One number makes next year's cuts easier and dumber. markneely.co/writing/7492...
McKinsey names a job that barely existed two years ago: the agent manager. An agent that hallucinates a commitment is the exposure of a bad hire, faster. Who answers when it goes wrong? markneely.co/writing/7491...
September 8, 2026 at 10:30 PM
McKinsey names a job that barely existed two years ago: the agent manager. An agent that hallucinates a commitment is the exposure of a bad hire, faster. Who answers when it goes wrong? markneely.co/writing/7491...
Enterprise buyers have moved past "whose model is better". The winners invest in the unglamorous disciplines: integration, security, governance, outcomes. Capability gets you into the room. Maturity gets the contract signed. markneely.co/writing/7491...
September 8, 2026 at 10:23 AM
Enterprise buyers have moved past "whose model is better". The winners invest in the unglamorous disciplines: integration, security, governance, outcomes. Capability gets you into the room. Maturity gets the contract signed. markneely.co/writing/7491...
Holy Fuck does UberOne use a barrage of UI ‘dark patterns’ to lock you into failing to unsubscribe…
December 11, 2024 at 9:55 AM
Holy Fuck does UberOne use a barrage of UI ‘dark patterns’ to lock you into failing to unsubscribe…