# management consulting (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 3 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover management consulting. Page: Feed: --- ## [Let’s Talk About Agents](http://www.shawnewallace.com/2026-08-12-lets-talk-about-agents/) _2026-08-12 · Shawn Wallace · Shawn Wallace_ "Agent" gets used as an autonomy descriptor, a product feature name, and a platform primitive, often in the same conversation. A field guide to the three meanings, using GitHub Copilot and Azure AI Foundry as the running example. ## [Generic Agents Are a Tax. Custom Agents Are an Investment.](http://www.shawnewallace.com/2026-08-03-generic-vs-custom-agents/) _2026-08-03 · Shawn Wallace · Shawn Wallace_ A live workshop experiment comparing a generic Copilot chat to a custom Backlog Generator agent on the same requirements-writing task, and why the gap is an argument for investing engineering rigor in designing your AI assets. ## [The Nervous Nerd](http://www.shawnewallace.com/2026-07-27-the-nervous-nerd/) _2026-07-27 · Shawn Wallace · Shawn Wallace_ Why the fear and the excitement about AI aren't two different camps of people. They're the same person, on the same night, and both feelings are trying to tell you something useful. ## [I Used to Love Writing Code. Now I Love Shipping It.](http://www.shawnewallace.com/2026-07-15-love-to-ship/) _2026-07-15 · Shawn Wallace · Shawn Wallace_ A confession about half-finished side projects, why loving to code was never enough, and how AI tools finally turned that love into a habit of shipping. ## [The Missing Rung (Who moved my Cheese?)](https://toddmerrill.substack.com/p/the-missing-rung-who-moved-my-cheese) _2026-07-14 · Todd Merrill · Todd Merrill_ New Grads are facing tough odds scoring jobs. AI is obviating the needs for inexperienced talent who used to be the grinders in the organization. Let's see how we can fix this. ## [We Don’t Have All the Answers — And That’s the Point](http://www.shawnewallace.com/2026-07-01-ai-consulting-model/) _2026-07-01 · Shawn Wallace · Shawn Wallace_ The old consulting model of knowing more than your client doesn't survive contact with AI. Here's what's actually happening, and what the new model looks like. ## [What 27 Ventures In 30 Days Actually Proved](https://toddmerrill.substack.com/p/what-27-ventures-in-30-days-actually) _2026-06-28 · Todd Merrill · Todd Merrill_ The retrospective. The numbers. The companies I’m taking forward, the ones I’m not, and what the Silverback Ventures studio actually is. ## [Wishful Thinking?](http://www.shawnewallace.com/2026-06-17-wishful-thinking/) _2026-06-17 · Shawn Wallace · Shawn Wallace_ Two years into working with AI tools every day, here's my honest assessment of what's changed, what hasn't, and why I'm cautiously optimistic about the future of software engineering as a profession. ## [Your AI Didn’t Fail. It Hit a Ceiling.](https://toddmerrill.substack.com/p/your-ai-didnt-fail-it-hit-a-ceiling) _2026-06-11 · Todd Merrill · Todd Merrill_ The 95% failure rate everyone’s quoting isn’t a verdict on AI — it’s the ceiling of the chatbot era. ## [The Instructions Are the Process](http://www.shawnewallace.com/2026-06-10-the-instructions-are-the-process/) _2026-06-10 · Shawn Wallace · Shawn Wallace_ The previous post closed with a claim: get the artifact chain right at the team level and you have something replicable. That’s what program-scale AI adoption actually looks like. ## [Auto-trade Cross-Exchange Gaps (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/kQ8cvw4HywuB) _2026-06-10 · **Sponsored**_ Find cross-exchange spreads, backtest strategies, and execute automatically with risk controls. ## [Shaking the Snow Globe](https://toddmerrill.substack.com/p/shaking-the-snow-globe) _2026-06-05 · Todd Merrill · Todd Merrill_ The economy is mid-shake. Legacy software that’s three or four years old has already been leapfrogged and the companies “waiting a year” are quietly being run over ## [The Artifact is the Architecture](http://www.shawnewallace.com/2026-06-03-ai-dev-flow/) _2026-06-03 · Shawn Wallace · Shawn Wallace_ Getting AI to produce consistent outcomes across a large program is hard. Most teams are discovering this the wrong way: each developer finding their own workflow, context evaporating between sessions, features drifting from intent, and no two teams using AI the same way. ## [The Tech-Fluent COO \[One Smooth Operator\]](https://toddmerrill.substack.com/p/the-tech-fluent-coo-one-smooth-operator) _2026-05-31 · Todd Merrill · Todd Merrill_ The biggest new job of the next two years isn’t Chief AI Officer. It’s a Chief Operating Officer who can speak Business, People, Process, and Technology in a single conversation. ## [Your Team Isn’t Using AI. Your Developers Are.](http://www.shawnewallace.com/2026-05-26-operationalizing-ai-assisted-development/) _2026-05-26 · Shawn Wallace · Shawn Wallace_ In my last post, I wrote about how senior developers are getting disproportionate productivity gains from AI-assisted development. Multiple 2026 studies confirm the pattern: the more experienced a developer is, the greater the productivity impact. A Fastly survey put a specific number on it — senior engineers generating AI-assisted code at 2.5 times the rate of junior developers. ## [Post-GEO: When Agents Pick Their Vendors, You’d Better Be Findable](https://toddmerrill.substack.com/p/post-geo-when-agents-pick-their-vendors) _2026-05-22 · Todd Merrill · Todd Merrill_ Generative engine optimization got your brand mentioned in AI answers. Agent-discoverability optimization decides whether the bots actually pick you. ## [Crossing the Chasm to the Dark Factory](https://toddmerrill.substack.com/p/crossing-the-chasm-to-the-dark-factory) _2026-05-19 · Todd Merrill · Todd Merrill_ How do we control our products when Software is made in a Dark Factory? Humans plan at an Objective level, provide context, manage releases and Coding Agents break-down, plan and execute. ## [Service Led, Software Leave behind. Sequoia’s Autopilot Map](https://toddmerrill.substack.com/p/service-led-software-leave-behind) _2026-05-17 · Todd Merrill · Todd Merrill_ Sequoia said the next $1T company will be a software firm masquerading as services. CogleGroup is the operator-side answer for mid-market companies. ## [The Channel-Motion Thesis: Why We’re Building For The MSP, Not The SMB](https://toddmerrill.substack.com/p/the-channel-motion-thesis-why-were) _2026-05-09 · Todd Merrill · Todd Merrill_ Selling cybersecurity to SMBs is a losing game. Equipping the MSPs who serve them is the winning game. After five ventures shipped from one channel motion, here’s what the data says. ## [When the Bot Disappears from Scrutiny](https://toddmerrill.substack.com/p/when-the-bot-disappears-from-scrutiny) _2026-05-07 · Todd Merrill · Todd Merrill_ How the EU AI Act of 2026 Was Built for the Wrong Architecture — and What That Means for vCISOs Governing Real Production AI ## [Non-Custodial Crypto Gateway (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/SNsaQ6Z9SL2a) _2026-05-07 · **Sponsored**_ Accept multi-chain crypto, automated fee handling, and trustless escrow with real-time settlement. ## [I Talk Too Much](http://www.shawnewallace.com/2026-04-09-talk-too-much/) _2026-04-09 · Shawn Wallace · Shawn Wallace_ A Principal Architect and church elder reflects on listening, restraint, and the pressure to always have answers.