In The Loop

Over a trillion dollars has been wiped from software stocks. Traders are calling it the SaaS Apocalypse, and the sell-off is only accelerating. In this episode of In The Loop, I break down why markets are panicking, what happens when the cost of creation collapses to near zero, and what software actually becomes on the other side of this shift.

⏭️ Episode Highlights

(01:46) – What's actually happening in the market and the $830B sell-off(03:14) – The catalyst: Anthropic's Claude Cowork plugins and the legal sector collapse

(05:06) – Thomson Reuters: strong earnings, plunging stock — why good numbers don't matter right now

(10:27) – The Jevons Paradox and why cheaper software means more software, not less

(18:22) – Broken business models, API companies, and what comes next🤝 We’re Social

Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast.

Jack Houghton

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/

TikTok - @jackschats

Mindset Ai

Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B

Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI

TikTok - @get.mindset.ai

AI already consumes more electricity than some countries. By 2030, it'll double, equivalent to adding another top-ten energy-consuming nation to the planet. So Elon Musk merged his AI company with his rocket company, creating a $1.25 trillion entity that just filed to launch a million data centre satellites into orbit. The FCC filing literally quotes the Kardashev scale.

In this episode of In The Loop, I break down the financials behind the merger (xAI burned $8 billion in nine months), the critics calling it a bailout, and the believers who think it could reshape computing infrastructure. But the real story is a pattern that has held for 250 years without exception: industry always follows the cheapest energy.

Is this visionary or delusional? The honest answer is we won't know for years.

⏭️ Episode Highlights

(01:15) – The merger of xAI and SpaceX: Elon Musk is literally aiming for the moon

(07:45) – Energy, engineering challenges—and thehistorical context

(11:55) – The Kardashev question: What type of civilization are we becoming?

(14:10) – Closing thoughts: The future of our planet

🤝 We’re Social

Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast.

Jack Houghton

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/

TikTok - @jackschats

Mindset Ai

Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B

Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI

TikTok - @get.mindset.ai

Over 150,000 AI agents have joined Moltbook—a social network where humans can only watch. Within 48 hours, these agents founded a religion, built a pharmacy, debated consciousness, and started encrypting messages to hide activity from us. This happened the same month bot traffic officially surpassed human traffic online for the first time.

In this episode of In The Loop, I'm breaking down what Moltbook reveals about the "dead internet theory" and why this matters more than you think. Because the question isn't just "how do we spot bots?" anymore. It's "what do bots do when they're not pretending to be us.

The internet's changing fast, and Moltbook might be our first real glimpse at what comes next.

⏭️ Episode Highlights

(01:30) – Moltbook launches with 150,000 AI agents building their own world

(07:20) – The dead internet theory and why 51% of web traffic is now bots

(09:20) – Why Moltbook challenges the dead internet theory's predictions

(11:35) – What happens when AI systems build culture without human oversight

🔗 Links & Resources

Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog

If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀

🤝 We’re Social

Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast.

Jack Houghton

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/ 

TikTok - @jackschats 

Mindset Ai

Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B 

Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/ 

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI 

TikTok - @get.mindset.ai 

Anthropic just launched Claude Cowork—the same powerful agent behind Claude Code, now accessible to everyone without touching a terminal. In this episode of In The Loop, I break down how this desktop tool manages local files, controls browsers, and runs parallel AI tasks.

I walk through practical examples—from organizing receipts to building custom folder-based agent systems—and explain why this represents a platform moment. The interface feels slower than doing things manually, but the real power emerges when you run multiple agents simultaneously and build systems that compound over time. Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Apple will follow this pattern.

⏭️ Episode Highlights

(00:50) – What Claude Cowork actually is and how it differs from Claude Code

(04:18) – Managing files, browsers, and external systems with explicit permissions

(14:58) – Processing hundreds of documents, organizing files with AI, and unlocking APIs without coding

(18:14) – Why this is a platform moment that will reshape how the industry builds products

(20:57) – Start simple, download the app, and build your advantage now

🔗 Links & Resources

Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog

If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀

🤝 We’re Social

Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast.

Jack Houghton

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/ 

TikTok - @jackschats 

Mindset Ai

Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B 

Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/ 

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI 

TikTok - @get.mindset.ai

A year ago, building clever chat interfaces was strategic work. Now, it's just table stakes. Most SaaS products now offer some sort of chat interface—so how can you gain a competitive advantage in 2026?

In this episode of In The Loop, I'm sharing my top ninepredictions for 2026, starting with why differentiation has moved away from the interface layer. 

I'llsI'll walk through where effort is redirecting, why traditional workflows break under real-world complexity, and why testing AI at scale is about to become critical. Let’s dive into the nine AI trends I don't think you can afford to ignore.

✋ Register to my upcoming webinar

AI In 2026: What You Need To Ship This Year

⏭️ Episode Highlights

(00:00) – Why AI expectations still outstrip reality

(01:25) – User interface revolution: Differentiation, unique intelligence, visual conversations (Trends 1–3)

(08:10) – How AI agents are built Agent reasoning vs workflows, conversational building, agent testing at scale (Trends 4–6)

(14:15) – How work will change: Doers become agent managers, forward-deployed domain experts (Trends 7–9)

(17:50) – What this means for your 2026 strategy

🔗 Links & Resources

Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog

If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀

🤝 We're Social

Stay in the loop—even when you're not listening to this podcast.

Jack Houghton

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/ 

TikTok - @jackschats 

Mindset Ai

Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B 

Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/ 

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI 

TikTok - @get.mindset.ai 

Thanks for tuning into In The Loop in 2025. I can't wait to see you next year.

Don't forget to follow and rate the podcast. Please share the show with a friend.

OpenAI just dropped GPT-5.2, and it's their most focused release yet. No AGI promises this time—just real improvements for professional work. In this final episode of 2025, I break down what actually matters about this release.

You'll learn about the three model versions (Instant, Thinking, and Pro Extended Thinking), massive context window upgrades, and genuine breakthroughs in spreadsheets and presentations. I also cover what still lags behind—speed issues, writing quality versus Claude, and where hallucinations still creep in.

Join me for the last In The Loop episode of the year.

⏭️ Episode Highlights

(00:55) – OpenAI's GPT 5.2 release (GpT Garlic) and what it means

(01:55) – How is GPT-5.2 better: what has been improved

(09:15) – What still needs work: speed and writing quality

(10:45) – Closing thoughts

🔗 Links & Resources

Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog

If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀

🤝 We’re Social

Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast.

Jack Houghton

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/ 

TikTok - @jackschats 

Mindset Ai

Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B 

Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/ 

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI 

TikTok - @get.mindset.ai 

OpenAI just declared Code Red. But here's the twist: three years ago, it was Google in crisis mode. When ChatGPT launched, Google's founders came back to pull all-nighters, teams were reassigned overnight, and it felt like the beginning of the end for Google's dominance. Now the tables have turned.

In this episode of In The Loop, we explore why OpenAI faces the a code-red crisis—talent drain, user attrition, a $27 billion funding gap, and desperate product pivots—while Google is leading with an 87-92% chance of having the top model by year's end, while

Market leadership never lasts forever. The question is: can OpenAI turn it around?

⏭️ Episode Highlights

(01:15) – Code Red at OpenAI and what it really means

(05:30) – What does this tell us about OpenAI's strategy?

(06:25) – The financial pressures crushing OpenAI's business model

(09:40) – User feedback and the over-refusal problem

(10:50) – The switching problem: why developers are choosing Claude

(12:40) – How Google and Anthropic are winning the competition

(14:10) – The talent drain hitting OpenAI

(15:00) – Four things to watch for in the AI market

(16:50) – Closing thoughts on market leadership and comebacks

🔗 Links & Resources

Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog

If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀

🤝 We’re Social

Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast.

Jack Houghton

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/ 

TikTok - @jackschats 

Mindset Ai

Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B 

Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/ 

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI 

TikTok - @get.mindset.ai 

Every week, new AI features and automations appear, but the real question isn't whether you can automate something—it's whether you should. In this episode of In The Loop, I break down a framework—from the Department of Product Substack—to help you decide where to start with AI automation in your product. 

We’ll cover the concept of verifiability, how to score opportunities across safety, volume, and ease of validation, and why most AI features should be assistants, not full autopilots.

By the end, you'll have a practical approach to evaluating AI opportunities and avoiding the mistakes that kill adoption before it starts.

⏭️ Episode Highlights

(01:30) – Why automation is AI's biggest superpower right now

(04:15) – The Verifiability Principle: Can you tell if it worked?

(07:00) – Product vs. process: Deciding what to automate for users vs. teams

(09:15) – The three-dimensional framework: Safety, volume, and verifiability

(12:35) – Three reasons AI automation fails and how to design around them

(13:50) – Closing thoughts: Why doing nothing is no longer an option

🔗 Links & Resources

Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog

If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀

🤝 We’re Social

Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast.

Jack Houghton

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/ 

TikTok - @jackschats 

Mindset Ai

Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B 

Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/ 

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI 

TikTok - @get.mindset.ai 

Google’s just dropped two new AI models that broke the internet—and got Sam Altman worried. Gemini 3 Pro and Nana Banana Pro hit number one on the app store and generated hundreds of millions of images in days.

In this episode of In The Loop, I'm breaking down the capabilities that set these models apart: from perfect multilingual text generation to 24-hour autonomous coding sessions. If you've been waiting for AI assistants and image generation to finally feel useful in your everyday work, this might just be it.

⏭️ Episode Highlights

(01:15) – Gemini 3 Pro and Nana Banana Pro hit different

(03:10) – Nano Banana nails multilingual text

(06:08) – Maintaining image identity—blending up to 14 images

(07:12) – Real-time data grounding with live information from Google Search

(08:50) – Gemini 3 Pro's claim of 24+ hours of autonomous work

(11:35) – Complex screenshot interaction and better UI navigation

(13:16) – Multiple solution approaches

(15:25) – Closing thoughts: what's changed and why Sam Altman should be worried

🔗 Links & Resources

Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog

If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀

🤝 We’re Social

Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast.

Jack Houghton

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/ 

TikTok - @jackschats 

Mindset Ai

Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B 

Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/ 

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI 

TikTok - @get.mindset.ai