Future Bytes

Welcome to our end-of-year episode of Future Bytes with co-host Jade Emmanuel, Senior Data & AI Consultant at Columbus UK.

In this episode, we'll revisit insights from our most popular episodes this year. We'll share predictions for AI in business and wrap up by answering questions from listeners.

Thank you for following along. We can't wait to continue the conversation in 2026.

Happy New Year from all of us!

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In the final AI News by Future Bytes episode of the year, Magnus Oxenwaldt highlights what no longer moves the market. New model releases are landing quietly. Performance gaps are narrowing. The centre of gravity in enterprise AI is shifting.

• Model releases lose impact: Google’s Gemini 3 Flash launched with little reaction, reflecting how GPT, Gemini and Claude now sit within statistical distance for most business use cases.
• Workflows become portable: Anthropic opened “skills” as an open standard, allowing AI workflows to move across models and tools.
• Cloud players diversify exposure: Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest in OpenAI while already backing Anthropic.
• Platforms converge: Shared protocols, app marketplaces and autonomous research agents signal a more interoperable enterprise AI stack.

See you next year!

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AI is approaching an inflection point. Magnus Oxenwaldt speaks with Columbus CEO Søren Krogh about what this moment means for leadership. Which experiences shaped Søren’s approach to technology and leadership?

This conversation reflects a thoughtful approach to leadership in the AI era. Not about having all the answers, but about sound judgement. Knowing when to go deep, when to trust others, and how to stay focused amid the noise. The emphasis is practical and human. Real value over impressive demos. Empathy and responsibility as steady guides in a time of rapid change.

“For me, AI is possibilities," Krogh says.

• AI as a leadership question, not a technology project
• Turning possibilities into prioritised action
• What responsible, modern AI leadership looks like inside organisations

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This week’s AI News by Future Bytes covers two stories that reveal where enterprise AI is heading. Major AI providers formed a foundation to set standards for agent communication. OpenAI released GPT-5.2 after an internal “code red”. The focus is shifting from models to orchestration.

Top stories this week - cooperation vs. competition:

• OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others formed the Agentic AI Foundation to create open standards for how AI agents communicate.
• OpenAI released GPT-5.2, fast-tracked after Google Gemini and Anthropic gained ground, highlighting the limits of benchmark comparisons.

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OpenAI issued a real "code red" as Google and Anthropic closed in. Gemini’s surge and Claude’s gains tightened the race, signalling a maturing market and rising pressure on enterprises.

– "Competition is working. Prices are falling. Capabilities are converging. For buyers, that’s the best news possible,” host Magnus Oxenwaldt says,

Top stories for week 50:

·  OpenAI declared code red as Google and Anthropic closed the gap, forcing Sam Altman to pause multiple upcoming projects.

·  Google launched Gemini 3 Pro and its new DeepThink reasoning tier, prompting Geoffrey Hinton to say Google may now overtake OpenAI.

·  Anthropic struck a $200M Snowflake partnership and is exploring an IPO, positioning itself as the enterprise AI stack.

·  New data shows the enterprise deployment gap widening, with Microsoft missing internal AI sales targets and only 5% of AI projects scaling beyond pilots.

·  With GPT, Gemini and Claude converging on benchmarks, enterprise value now hinges more on integration with existing data infrastructure than raw model performance.

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Three major AI models launched this week: Google’s Gemini 3, Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5, and OpenAI’s GPT-5.1 Codex Max. Each lead in a different area, and the gap between benchmarks and real-world performance is widening. 

The bigger shift? AI is moving into specialisation across the entire stack. Microsoft is betting on being the orchestration hub. Google is leaning on vertical integration. And the market is fragmenting faster than expected. 

Top stories this week:

• Google, Anthropic and OpenAI all launched new models this week, each claiming leadership in a different area. 
• Benchmarks diverge from real-world experience — developers still prefer certain models for how they reason and solve edge cases. 
• AI is shifting toward specialisation: voice, image, coding, and text handled by different best-in-class services. 
• Microsoft positions itself as the orchestration hub with Foundry and its investments in Anthropic and OpenAI. 
• Google’s vertical stack and potential sale of TPU chips to Meta show a market that is fragmenting, not consolidating. 

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This week, the EU postponed its core AI rules by sixteen months, pushing them into 2027. But while regulators slowed down, technology accelerated. At the same time, Microsoft and Google introduced tools that let anyone build autonomous agents, automate workflows, and create apps through simple conversation. Hyper-automation moved into the mainstream. Regulation fell even further behind. And enterprises now face a widening governance gap they will have to close themselves.

Top stories this week:

1. EU delays high-risk AI rules to 2027–2028, leaving a long regulatory gap.
2. Microsoft and Google push no-code agents mainstream, letting anyone build automations.
3. Hyper-automation accelerates, with agents now able to write and validate their own code.
4. Enterprise adoption spikes: 99% of developers build agents; 40% of big firms deploy them this year.
5. Governance falls behind, forcing companies to build their own internal AI controls.

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This week, something unexpected happened. Warren Buffett, the investor who avoided tech hype for 20 years, just bought $4.9 billion worth of Alphabet shares. 

At the same time: 

• Analysts warn the AI economy may already resemble the dot-com bubble 
• Nvidia is hitting record highs while AI infrastructure spending explodes 
• Most enterprises still report no measurable ROI from AI 
• Sub-prime winner Michael Burry is betting against AI infrastructure companies 

So, what’s real? A bubble? A breakthrough? 

Or both at the same time? 

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After years of intense startup work and long-haul flights, a doctor told Lars Tvede to take a year off. He moved to the Swiss mountains to rest. Instead, he ended up starting two new companies. He simply couldn't help it. It is what makes him happy.

That instinct hasn't changed. Today, Tvede is behind Supertrends, a platform that uses AI to help businesses make better predictions about the future. In this episode, host Magnus Oxenwaldt dives into the philosophy behind Supertrends. We also talk about reinventing the media with an AI-powered news and insights platform built around "breaking views" rather than breaking news.

If you want to understand where technology is heading, this conversation is worth listening to.

Key ingsights:

·     Supertrends monitors 5,000 publications daily in 40 languages, tracking 4,000 technology predictions

·     The AI system now handles work that previously required 160 human experts

·     China remains the biggest challenge – Tvede calls it his greatest blind spot for emerging tech

·     New venture “Project Y” aims to launch an AI-powered media company in Denmark

Links mentioned in the podcast:

www.supertrends.com

www.projecty.dk

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