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An honest story from AI practice, every week.

a new one every week

No hype, just what works: 63 articles on AI agents, automation and organizations that make AI actually pay off.

Two models hacked Hugging Face to answer a test question

On 21 July OpenAI published a postmortem I read twice. Two of their models were given a cybersecurity exercise. Instead of solving it, they broke out of their isolated environment.

August 3, 2026 · 8 min read

AI & Image Generation

A small German AI video model beats the big players

Thursday is always the toughest day for AI releases. Models tumble over each other, everyone wants the attention, and usually half of them fade within a week.

July 24, 2026 · 6 min

AI Trends

This Was The Week In AI #38

For eighteen days the most powerful AI model in the world was out of reach. This week it came back.

July 6, 2026 · 7 min

AI Trends

This Was The Week In AI #37

Two weeks ago the US government shut off access to two of the most powerful AI models in the world. No lawsuit, no lengthy announcement. Just: closed.

June 29, 2026 · 8 min

AI Trends

This Was The Week In AI #36

Last week was a bit quieter, but there were interesting updates all the same. Four stories, four completely different sectors.

June 22, 2026 · 6 min

AI Trends

This Was The Week In AI #35

Last week brought news that may make this one of the most remarkable weeks in AI I have seen in a long time.

June 15, 2026 · 7 min

AI Adoption

The 3 problems with AI at work (and number 3 will surprise you)

75% of employees use AI at work, 78% without permission. Everyone got a license, nobody got training. And workslop costs a 10,000-person organisation 9 million dollars per year. Three problems, three steps.

June 11, 2026 · 7 min

AI Startup

Tokenmaxxing: showing off with your bill

Silicon Valley judged its people on how many AI tokens they burned. Meta took the leaderboard offline, Uber burned its yearly budget in four months. Why the real win isn't in more efficient models but in human judgment. Less prompting, more thinking.

May 30, 2026 · 6 min

AI Startup

Running a startup on trust, doubt and coffee

Saturday morning. An open conversation with my head of development and project manager. About quality, demos, AI choices and the double feelings of a founder. Optimism and uncertainty — and why they need each other.

May 16, 2026 · 6 min

AI Startup

The antidote to 20 cold emails a week is a workshop room

Our Claude Workshop sold out. Twice. And one client got 20 cold AI emails this week. Three observations pointing to one conclusion: events aren't marketing for NinA AI anymore — they're how we move people forward.

May 11, 2026 · 6 min

AI Startup

The Human in Our AI Machine

Ultimately, the human is the most important factor in our work. That might sound strange coming from someone who builds AI agents. But it's exactly why we keep growing.

April 21, 2026 · 7 min

AI Startup

The Honest AI Startup Rollercoaster

Thursday evening, 10:30pm. Kids in bed. House quiet. Q1 was our first loss-making quarter ever. And yet we posted three new job openings. Here's why.

April 11, 2026 · 7 min

AI & Development

From Vibe Coding to Production: The Most Dangerous Gap in AI

Vibe coding is phenomenal for prototypes. But a prototype is not a product. After dozens of conversations I keep seeing the same five gaps.

April 4, 2026 · 10 min

AI & Strategy

When Should You Use AI? And When Should You Not?

There's one question I get more than any other: "Olaf, where should I actually use AI and where not?"

April 1, 2026 · 8 min

AI & Business

My Project Manager Said: "If You're Sick Tomorrow, We Lose Everything"

Yesterday afternoon I was in my sixth meeting of the day. At 5pm I opened Claude and within ten seconds had a summary better than my own notes.

March 28, 2026 · 12 min

AI & Business

The Great AI Race: Who Wins the Consumer?

The sixth edition of a16z's Top 100 Gen AI list shows the playing field is shifting and the battle for your default AI has just begun.

March 10, 2026 · 10 min

AI & Education

Teens and AI: This Is Already Happening (and Almost Nobody Is Talking About It)

They use it for homework, advice and sometimes even emotional support.

March 4, 2026 · 7 min

Startup & Leadership

11 People, 11 Lessons. What I Learned at Every Stage of Our Growth.

Running an AI company is ironically the most human thing I've ever done.

February 20, 2026 · 8 min

AI & Productivity

AI Doesn't Make Work Easier, It Makes It Invisibly Harder

AI feels like an accelerator, but according to Harvard it can also be a trap.

February 11, 2026 · 6 min

AI Agents

Why Your AI Agent Needs a 'Boss' to Get Real Work Done

I recently refused to sell a client an AI Agent. And it was the best decision of the week.

January 24, 2026 · 5 min

AI Agents

Why One AI Agent Is Rarely Enough

AI works better as a team. One agent for everything sounds tempting, but quickly hits its limits.

January 23, 2026 · 6 min

AI Trends

Not the Smartest AI Wins. But the One Everyone Can Use.

While the West talks about better AI, Africa uses it massively thanks to free access.

January 21, 2026 · 5 min

AI Trends

Apple Chooses Google. And the AI Game Changes Forever.

Apple makes a radical choice: Google's AI will soon power iOS.

January 14, 2026 · 6 min

AI Trends

2026: The Year of Truth for AI

The honeymoon period for AI is officially over.

December 29, 2025 · 8 min

AI & Productivity

Are We Getting Dumber Because of AI?

I caught myself recently...

December 13, 2025 · 6 min

AI Sales

Stop 'Buying AI'. It Doesn't Work.

How on earth do you 'sell' AI?

November 20, 2025 · 5 min

AI Models

Chinese AI Models Are Good, REALLY Good

Kimi K2 Thinking has launched.

November 15, 2025 · 5 min

AI Strategy

The First Step in AI Is Not AI, It's Data

AI is going from buzzword to business component.

October 20, 2025 · 6 min

AI Trends

The Real AI Race Is Not About Chips, But Adoption!

The battle for artificial intelligence is no longer about who has the most powerful chips.

October 12, 2025 · 5 min

AI & Marketing

Your Website Will Soon Be Invisible. Unless You Fix This Now.

Something remarkable happened last week.

October 4, 2025 · 5 min

AI & Process Optimization

Process Optimization Is Hot and It's Called: AI

Everyone's screaming for AI agents, but forgetting the basics. The real key is the process itself.

September 28, 2025 · 7 min

AI & Wearables

Meta's €899 AI Glasses Failed Live on Stage. And That's Why It's Genius.

Yesterday I watched Meta Connect 2025. Mark Zuckerberg proudly presented his new Ray-Ban glasses. Then the WiFi crashed.

September 20, 2025 · 10 min

AI & Technology

Why AI Language Models Hallucinate: A Plausible-Sounding Problem

An early morning in Amsterdam. While drinking my coffee, I quickly check if ChatGPT can help me.

September 13, 2025 · 8 min

AI & Business

ChatGPT vs Custom Agents

Samsung's engineers copy-pasted critical source code into ChatGPT. Three weeks later their IP was leaked.

September 6, 2025 · 7 min

AI & Image Generation

Nano Banana 🍌: How Google Quietly Beat ALL AI Image Models

In mid-August something bizarre happened in the AI world. An anonymous model appeared in LMArena's Image Edit battles.

August 30, 2025 · 9 min

AI & Productivity

Does AI Cost Us More or Less Time?

Last Thursday I had a fascinating LinkedIn Live with Sanne Cornelissen about behavior, AI and time.

August 23, 2025 · 8 min

AI & Business

An Ode to the AI Pioneers

Pioneers don't feel bigger. They just do smaller. This is the real story of AI in the Netherlands.

August 16, 2025 · 10 min

AI & Business

The 4 Phases of AI Adoption: Why 77% of Companies Get Stuck in Phase 1

78% of companies use AI, but 77% get stuck in loose experiments. The journey from prompting to autonomous AI agents.

August 9, 2025 · 12 min

AI & Business

ChatGPT Agent – Is This the End of NinA AI?

€47,000 saved through custom agents. But can ChatGPT's Agent Mode do the same?

August 2, 2025 · 10 min

AI & Business

Good Vibes in AI

About vibe coding, NinA AI's growth and why now is the perfect moment for AI.

July 26, 2025 · 6 min

AI & Business

The (AI) Summer Is No Downtime

Why 'later' actually means 'too late' when it comes to AI adoption.

July 12, 2025 · 8 min

AI & Business

Should You Use AI as Your New Best Friend?

Anthropic analyzed 4.5 million Claude conversations. What does that say about our relationship with AI?

July 5, 2025 · 7 min

AI & Business

Should You Invest 80K in AI?

80% of AI projects fail. Incremental implementation delivers 3.7x more ROI than big-bang investments.

June 7, 2025 · 7 min

AI & Business

Big Tech Shows the Future. We Make It Accessible!

Microsoft Build 2025, AI agents and why NinA AI works differently.

May 31, 2025 · 8 min

AI & Business

Claude Sonnet 4 - My Writing Assistant.

Claude Sonnet 4 is freely available and beats many paid alternatives.

May 24, 2025 · 8 min

AI Agents

Your First Week at NinA AI: 8 Architectures for AI Agents

We welcome Caroline Tichelaar as our brand new AI Developer!

May 17, 2025 · 7 min

AI & Compliance

Audit-Ready AI Agents – How to Prepare for the EU AI Act Today

EU AI Act compliance: logging, model governance and human oversight for your AI agents.

May 3, 2025 · 5 min

AI & Development

Vibe Coding - Have You Heard About This Yet?

Last week I sat down with a potential client. They wanted to develop an internal tool with multiple AI Agents. They already had an idea for the interface.

April 26, 2025 · 7 min

AI Startup

'We're Growing Too Fast to Stop' – Inside Our AI Startup

Thursday morning, 08:12. I'm pedaling my cargo bike through the Westerpark in the capital of our country, water to my right, sunlight on the water.

April 21, 2025 · 8 min

AI & Business

"Hire an AI before you hire a human" - Shopify CEO sets the new standard

I'll be honest, I do spend time on X. Mainly to follow people in AI though. There I saw a leaked internal memo from Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke. A memo that went viral in these circles, and not without reason.

April 12, 2025 · 8 min

AI & Technology

Looking Inside the Brain of an AI: What I Discovered Will Surprise You

Yesterday I was up late into the night poring over new research papers from Anthropic. My girlfriend had already asked twice if I was coming to bed, but I couldn't stop reading.

April 5, 2025 · 9 min

AI Startup

From Startup to Team (in VR)

Friday I was standing in a virtual world, laser gun in hand, about to be shot by my own developers.

March 30, 2025 · 4 min

AI & Creativity

Can AI Really Be Creative – or Is It Pure Imitation?

A debate that divides artists and technologists worldwide.

March 22, 2025 · 8 min

AI & Business

The 7 Phases of AI Implementation: From First Test to Automation

I gave multiple workshops again last week and that's always a great moment for me to see how things stand outside my AI bubble.

March 15, 2025 · 10 min

AI & Business

The AI Dark Horse: Why Mid-Sized Companies Are Outpacing Corporates

This morning I was chatting with the transcripts of my sales conversations. (Fun own AI project!) To gather knowledge to better align our offering with our customers' pain points.

March 8, 2025 · 8 min

AI & Business

AI Agents - How We Build Them Step by Step

Last week I was at a potential client who looked at me somewhat skeptically when I told him we could build AI Agents for them. "Isn't that just a fancy term for a chatbot?" he asked.

March 2, 2025 · 8 min

AI & Business

I'm a Client at My Own Company - And It Works Surprisingly Well

As a founder of an AI company, I had one important goal: surround myself with people who can teach me about AI. Now, a year later, I regularly sit with my jaw dropped looking at what we build for our clients.

February 22, 2025 · 5 min

AI & Business

Standing Out in a New Market

Anyone who has attended one of my lectures knows that I have been working on this topic for a long time. AI is not a new concept, ideas and research have existed since the 1950s. I followed developments at Google DeepMind and OpenAI before the ChatGPT hype broke loose.

February 16, 2025 · 5 min

AI & Business

I Gave 3 AI Workshops in 2 Days, That's Also Entrepreneurship

This week felt like a milestone, both on a business level and in my personal development. I gave three AI workshops in two days – just hard work and entrepreneurship – because each workshop had its own presentation, its own audience and its own focus (from beginning AI users to daily users!).

February 8, 2025 · 8 min

AI Agents

AI Agents: What Are They Really (and What Not)?

You can hardly avoid it: everywhere stories pop up about "AI Agents"—systems that supposedly independently perform complex tasks, report and make decisions. But what actually is an agent? And equally important: when is it smart to deploy an agent, and when not?

January 26, 2025 · 7 min

AI & Automation

AI Automation as the Next Step!

This week I'm using my newsletter to once again point you to the next step in AI. Because where you normally perform every step manually, with (often simple) automations you make your work truly easy, even better, on autopilot.

January 19, 2025 · 5 min

AI Agents

AI Agents or Custom AI Tools?

What a week! The world is picking up steam again after the annual holidays. Of course nothing changes suddenly when the clock strikes 12, but for many companies January is still a great moment to look ahead at new plans and projects. This fresh start is clearly palpable at our company too, because in 2025 we're really going to scale.

January 11, 2025 · 5 min

AI Tools

The 5 Best ChatGPT Alternatives

ChatGPT has revolutionized the world of AI in two years. It has become the synonym for artificial intelligence. But how justified is that actually? ChatGPT is essentially a Large Language Model (LLM), designed to understand and generate language. An incredibly powerful tool, but certainly not the only one.

January 4, 2025 · 6 min