A year of AI agents

A Year of Agents, and What is Coming Next

TL;DR The defining shift from April 2025 to April 2026 is the move from “ask” to “delegate” - agents now run for minutes, open files, execute shells, and return results rather than waiting for each prompt Key developments that drove this: coding agents becoming operators (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex), MCP standardising tool access, spec-driven development going mainstream, and context windows expanding to millions of tokens In the next two years, longer-horizon agents, multi-agent coordination, persistent personal AI memory, and computer-use automation will move from early features to default expectations The working day is reshaping around less typing and more reviewing - the skill that matters is judgement over diffs, not typing speed or boilerplate generation To adapt now: pick a stack and use it daily, write specs before code, build the habit of reviewing diffs fast, and move procedural knowledge into reusable agent skills A year ago, in April 2025, “AI in your workflow” mostly meant a chat window in a browser tab and an autocomplete plugin in your editor. You typed, it suggested, you accepted or rejected. The interaction model was small. The blast radius was small. The verb was “ask”. ...

March 13, 2026 · 12 min · James M
Speechify text-to-speech app

Speechify - Best Text to Speech App

TL;DR Speechify converts written content - PDFs, Word docs, web articles, and even physical text via camera - into natural-sounding audio using AI voices It supports multiple languages, adjustable playback speed, and OCR for scanned or image-based text The premium Speechify Studio tier adds AI voice cloning, professional audiobook creation, and batch processing for large documents Key use cases include accessibility for people with dyslexia or ADHD, productivity during commutes, and professional audiobook publishing Pricing starts free for basic use, with premium plans at $12-20 per month for unlimited access and higher-quality voices Speechify is a leading text-to-speech platform that converts written content into natural-sounding audio, available across web, mobile, and browser extensions. ...

May 20, 2023 · 2 min · James M
Notion AI workspace

Notion

TL;DR Notion is a flexible workspace for notes, documents, databases, and task management - extended with Notion AI as a paid add-on AI features cover document Q&A, content generation, summarisation, and a writing assistant for grammar and tone Strongest as a single home for personal knowledge, team wikis, and lightweight project management - one workspace instead of three tools The AI layer is good for in-context drafting and lookup; less suited to heavy reasoning where a dedicated LLM tool does better Pricing is per-seat for Notion plus an AI add-on; check the current tiers before committing for a team Most productivity tools force a choice: notes here, tasks there, docs somewhere else. Notion bets that a single flexible workspace - one that handles all of these - is more valuable than three best-of-breed tools that don’t talk to each other. The bet mostly holds, and the addition of Notion AI has made the knowledge layer genuinely more useful. ...

May 11, 2023 · 2 min · James M