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Field notes

Notes from the front line of AI adoption.

Short, honest writing on what is working, what is not, and what we are learning inside real organisations.

Building Claude Code Skills: What I Have Learned So Far

In my last newsletter, I shared Career Helper, a Claude skill for job seekers. I mentioned I'd follow up with what I've learned from building 50+ skills. This is that follow-up. I've been building with Claude Code since its launch in February 2025. When Anthropic formalised the skills feature in…

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Giving Back: A Claude Skill for Job Seekers

I don't know why, but January is often a forced career transition moment, so it seems now is a good time to subvert the newsletter to talk about this Claude skill. It's a pretty useful demonstration of what you can do with a skill, making use of all sorts of techniques. Next newsletter, I will…

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Better ChatGPT 5.1 Prompt Writing

All of the Major providers have cook books, or prompt writing guides. With the release of chatGPT 5.1 there are a few changes you can make to when you are creating prompts to get better results out of it. I know this looks a little alien, and is a bit more effort. Do I use these approaches all of…

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When Max Met Aisha

In October 2025, Channel 4 aired a documentary about AI and employment. The presenter, Aisha Gaban, delivered her lines with the slightly stilted cadence you expect from documentary narration. She looked professional. She sounded credible. And at the end of the programme, she revealed something…

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Future-Proofing a Legacy Finance Firm with AI

Customer Profile A well-established financial services firm with a 50-year legacy, over 350 employees, and consistently strong margins. Renowned for its trust, expertise, and people-driven workflows, the firm had long been a leader in its space. But as AI-enabled competitors emerged, pressure…

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