Field notes.
Real opinions about what AI is getting right and wrong for operators in 2026, written by us, in our own voice, not a content calendar. Plus the occasional teardown of something Izzy built and what it taught us.
Articles
The Political Cost of AI Chaos: Why Your Team Keeps Fighting Over Prompts
Decentralized prompts turn Product, Engineering, and Compliance against each other. Here's the governance pattern we build with clients
The AI CTO’s Guide to Board Reporting: 4 KPIs to Prove ROI
Dreading the question of why the bill is so high? question. Discover the 4 "North Star" AI metrics that prove value, ensure compliance, and shift the board narrative from cost to growth.
A/B Testing LLM Prompts When You Don't Have a Data Team
MIT found that 95% of AI pilots fail from workflow design, not bad models. Here's how a two-person team can A/B test prompts without a data scientist.
The CTO’s Guide to Token Budgets: How to Set Per-Feature Limits & Prevent Shock Bills
Stop flying blind on AI spend. Learn the 4-step framework to set per-feature token budgets, enforce gateway limits, and prevent surprise LLM bills before they happen.
Why Hardcoding Prompts in Git is a €10M Technical Debt Trap
Hardcoding prompts in Git hides LLM costs and creates compliance risks. Discover why this technical debt kills velocity and how to decouple prompts now.
7 EU AI Act Traps That Survive the 2027 Delay
The EU AI Act's high-risk deadline just moved to December 2027. Fines still run up to €15M or 3% of turnover under Article 99, internal workflows included.
Why Your LLM Bill Doubled: 5 Hidden Cost Leaks Every CTO Misses
Flying blind on AI spend? Uncover 5 technical cost leaks from recursion traps to context taxes—that are driving your OpenAI bill up. Save 30–50% with this guide.
Build vs. Buy: The True Cost of LLM Observability (+ Free TCO Calculator)
Thinking of building your own LLM observability stack? Our 3-year analysis reveals why building costs 116x more than buying. Download the TCO calculator inside.
PromptMetrics Review (MVP): An Honest Look at Pros, Cons & The 2026 Launch
Releasing Jan 2026: An honest preview of the PromptMetrics MVP. We analyze pros, cons, and why EU teams need this compliant LLM observability platform.
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Operator Stack
The free community where we continue these conversations between posts.