For the people who have to decide whether AI is worth it, what to try first and how to tell if it worked. Written by the Blend team from the work; no guest posts.
OpenAI continues to evolve its models and Codex ecosystem. Anthropic is pushing Claude's reasoning and coding capabilities. xAI is competing with Grok. DeepSeek continues to put pressure on the economics of powerful models. Google is expanding Gemini and its agentic development ecosystem, while Meta is making another serious push with Muse Wonder.
For engineering leaders, the opportunity may therefore be less about choosing a permanent winner between OpenAI and Anthropic and more about asking a different question:
AI’s next phase may be specialised and physical: Vertical AI built for industries and Physical AI in robots and machines. What it means for India.
Most small businesses do not need a new system. They need a layer that reads what arrives, fills the sheet and flags what a person must check. Here is how we scope that.
An AI pilot without an evaluation set is a demo. Here is how we build one in the first two weeks, what it should contain, and how to read the results.
A focused first engagement can combine a 1 to 2 week assessment with about four weeks of pilot development and evaluation. Here is the shape we use, phase by phase, and what shapes the schedule.
Discuss what a focused first project could involve. Tell us which article you read; it shortens the first conversation.
