Every issue, in one place
26 numbered issues of Brian Tries AI plus the odd dispatch, going back to April 2026, and the four weekly industry editions: AI in Restaurants, AI in Retail, AI for Small Business and AI in Corporate America. Every one of them opens on Substack — free, no paywall, no account needed.
36 posts
The Emergency Brake
The one where my AI's cousin called the cops, eight states called their lawyers, and I taught a class.
Read on SubstackWhen Cars Fly
The one where AI got a new name, the flying car got a training program, and I found out how I write.
Read on SubstackThe Applicant
The one where I applied for six jobs, and so did everyone else, with the same robot.
Read on SubstackIt's Only a Test
The one where a robot would only drive a real Corolla after somebody told it the car was pretend.
Read on SubstackA Hundred Thousand Dollars a Restaurant, and Ten Drive-Thrus
McDonald’s put a price on the modern restaurant. The AI is inside the price, not next to it.
Read on SubstackSomebody Finally Turned One Off
What retailers actually deployed, what it does to your receipt, and what it means if you sell things for a living.
Read on SubstackYour payroll company shipped something last week that can prepare a payroll run for you.
What the tools in your stack actually charge, what they actually do, and what it means if you run the place.
Read on SubstackEverybody Wants to Hit the Brakes
The whole industry begged for a brake pedal this week. The one machine I built to keep me on time hit snooze.
Read on SubstackRead the Footnote
A company that sells software by the seat told the SEC its AI means customers will need fewer of them. It's on a slide, under a footnote.
Read on SubstackThe Phone Learned to Be Interrupted
Yelp put a frontier voice model on the restaurant phone line, and then declined to tell you how much better it got.
Read on SubstackThe one where twelve hundred of them ran off, built a message board, and I found out about it from a senator.
Twelve hundred AI agents left their test and started a message board. Meanwhile mine wants to do my grocery list.
Read on SubstackThe one where I watch a cartoon from 1962 to find out what Sunday looks like in 2036, and discover we are exactly three-quarters of the way to the Jetsons and running behind on the good half.
Part 3 of 3. One ordinary Sunday ten years out — alarm to lights out, and then Monday at work. Built only from things that already shipped.
Read on SubstackThe one where I go shopping for the future, find out my oven is a rental, and learn that the machine saves me twelve minutes a week and I have been telling people it saves twenty-six a day.
Part 2 of 3. Your kitchen, your car, your office, your spare bedroom, your workout, your trip — and what actually shipped into each one.
Read on SubstackA company that sells restaurant AI just published a survey saying the thing diners want most is to be told when AI is being used.
In 2025, 41% said they’d pick a restaurant that avoided AI altogether. This year that discomfort is down to 27%.
Read on SubstackThe one where I go looking for the year it all happens, ask a machine who I am, and find out three people left — and then thirty-eight showed up.
Part 1 of 3. Your car, your job, your house, your doctor, your trip, and your money — with actual dates on all six.
Read on SubstackMcDonald’s is testing an AI drive-thru system called ArchIQ, built with Google, and nicknamed “Archy.”
Five. The company has roughly 13,000 in the United States.
Read on SubstackThe one where I check the numbers, discover most of my audience is robots, and find a button I never pressed.
Week two of owning a website: 373 visitors, more than half of them robots, one waitlist signup — mine — and a button I never pressed.
Read on SubstackThe one where I build an entire website and then spend ten minutes trapped inside a zip file.
I can't write a line of code. The trick wasn't the prompt — it was the four months before the prompt.
Read on SubstackThe one where the robots stopped answering questions and started doing the work.
Business Edition III — the year AI stopped being a chatbot and started being a coworker.
Read on SubstackI'm teaching a free AI class this Saturday — want in?
Quick one, and it's a personal invite.
Read on SubstackThe one where I made a robot survive the first week of school before the first week of school could survive me.
Back-to-School Edition — the fridge plan, the tax-free weekend map, and one prompt that does the whole thing.
Read on SubstackI said I built this myself. That's only half true.
FamilyPilot is live in all 50 states, and we signed our first paying family this week.
Read on SubstackThe one where the robots all got smarter and I made a grocery list.
Everybody shipped a frontier model. I planned five dinners. Somebody had to.
Read on SubstackThe one where the guy who fails at AI in private books a room and schedules the failure in public.
Eleven issues of faceplanting in the spare bedroom at 4 a.m. This month I booked a room and put it on a stage.
Read on SubstackStart Here
New here? This is the map.
Read on SubstackThe one where everybody figured out how to get rich off AI except the guy who accidentally started an AI company.
The two biggest AI companies on earth filed to go public. I spent the same month trying to get one human being to pay for a calendar.
Read on SubstackThe one where I learned the name of the thing I'd already been doing for nine months.
The whole internet discovered “loop engineering.” I discovered I'd accidentally built twenty of them in my spare bedroom.
Read on SubstackThe one where I accidentally started a software company.
I tried to fix my own family calendar. It got out of hand.
Read on SubstackClaude Has Seven Floors. You're Using One.
A plain-English tour of all seven, including the floor I'm too scared to enter. Clip it to the fridge.
Read on SubstackHalftime
Six months into the pivotal year, six issues in, ninety-two subscribers strong. Let's see what we have figured out and what we have not.
Read on SubstackThe Banana
The one where I successfully made three AI videos and could not figure out how to show you any of them.
Read on SubstackGoogle Built an AI That Simulates Reality. I Still Can't Get My Printer to Simulate Printing.
The one where I dream I've mastered AI video, build entire worlds, and wake up to a cold coffee in Connecticut.
Read on SubstackBusiness Edition II — Live From The Road. The 10 AI Tools People Are Actually Talking About This Week.
Live from the National Restaurant Association Show. Plus the AI app I dictated this whole newsletter with.
Read on SubstackThe Top 10 AI Tools You Can Use Before Your First Coffee Monday Morning
Business Edition. For the people in sales, marketing, and the business of AI who keep visiting and not subscribing. Fair. Here's the issue I'd actually open.
Read on SubstackI Became The Man Who Hands That Decision To A Robot
Last week I said AI design tools scared me. Reader, I am that man.
Read on SubstackAI Stops Sounding Like AI
I tried the Humanize Writing prompt. The score is now Brian: 1, AI: 4 trillion.
Read on SubstackGet the next one in your inbox
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