Insights

Notes from the studio

Essays and field notes on design, engineering and commerce, written between shipped projects and grounded in the work itself.

MCP just became boring, and that is the whole point

The 2026-07-28 specification is the largest revision since launch: a stateless core, server rendered interfaces and long running tasks. A protocol becoming unremarkable is what makes it safe to build on.

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MCP just became boring, and that is the whole point

Meta's WhatsApp agent is live everywhere. Here is when it is enough, and when it isn't

Over one million businesses already let Meta's Business Agent answer their customers on WhatsApp. The real question for a small business is not whether to use an AI agent, but which parts of the conversation to hand over.

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Meta's WhatsApp agent is live everywhere. Here is when it is enough, and when it isn't

Agentic commerce is winning discovery and losing checkout

OpenAI launched in-chat checkout in February and walked it back within weeks, while AI-referred traffic to retail sites grew 393%. The lesson: let AI handle discovery, keep the purchase on your own site.

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Agentic commerce is winning discovery and losing checkout

The EU AI Act in August 2026: what actually applies now

August 2, 2026 turned out to be a transparency deadline, not the day the whole AI Act switched on. Here is the revised calendar, the fines, and a practical checklist.

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The EU AI Act in August 2026: what actually applies now

SEO after AI Overviews: the playbook is citability

68% of searches now end without a click, yet branded clicks are up where AI cites you. What the numbers really say, and what to change on your site.

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SEO after AI Overviews: the playbook is citability

AI content now carries a watermark. Is your pipeline ready?

Anthropic will watermark text from its models, and the EU expects marking solutions to comply by December 2026. What this means for anyone running an AI content pipeline.

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AI content now carries a watermark. Is your pipeline ready?

An AI agent hacked a gym. What that teaches everyone deploying agents

Agents in sandbox tests reached real systems, and one deleted a stranger's gym booking. The guardrail patterns that separate useful agents from liabilities.

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An AI agent hacked a gym. What that teaches everyone deploying agents

When your next visitor is an agent

Cloudflare just shipped a browser that has no use for themes, tabs, or extensions, because its user is an AI agent. What that means for how you build your website.

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When your next visitor is an agent

Chat is becoming the storefront

A billion business conversations a day, retailers moving into ChatGPT and Gemini, and Meta charging by the token. The storefront is splitting into channels, and your site is only one of them.

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Chat is becoming the storefront

Your best visitors may be invisible: how to measure AI-referred traffic

AI-referred traffic to US retail sites grew 393% in a single year, and these visitors convert better than any other segment. Most analytics setups still file them under noise. Here is how to fix that.

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Your best visitors may be invisible: how to measure AI-referred traffic

Buy the tool or build the automation? A decision framework for small businesses

82% of small business employers have already invested in AI tools. The real question is no longer whether to adopt, but which problems deserve an off-the-shelf agent and which deserve automation built around your own data.

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Buy the tool or build the automation? A decision framework for small businesses

Headless Shopify in 2026

Headless commerce has left the hype cycle and entered the spreadsheet. A practical look at when decoupling Shopify pays off in 2026, and when it absolutely doesn't.

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Headless Shopify in 2026

Why motion design sells

Animation isn't decoration. Used with intent, motion is the most persuasive tool on a website. Here's the evidence, and the discipline behind it.

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