Everything I'd send you, in one place

Report: 89% of Small Businesses Using AI Report Positive Impacts

Revenue Brew reports on new data from Homebase, an AI-powered operator for small businesses: 89% of small businesses using AI report a positive impact, and owners are more than twice as likely to expect AI to help their business grow (49%) than to reduce head count (22%). Nearly three-quarters (74%) of surveyed small businesses are using or piloting AI tools, up from 64% in 2025, with usage ranging from 54% among businesses under $500,000 in revenue to 81% among those above $5 million. Businesses using AI for scheduling and payroll report an estimated 7.7 hours and $343 saved per month.

Meet the Developers Rejecting AI

LeadDev feature on software developers who refuse to use AI tools, even when it costs them clients, job offers and career progress.

Why I recommend it: A set of personal stories, not a survey — useful for understanding the trade-offs, not how common this is.

Gallup: AI Optimism Globally Widespread Despite Uneven Use

Gallup and Microsoft survey of the first 37 countries (of a planned 140): positive feelings about AI outweigh negative ones in 34, but a median 57% of adults have never used AI, and use ranges from 79% in Singapore to 3% in Malawi.

Why I recommend it: Free to read. Useful data on how people around the world feel about AI. Note the study is run with Microsoft, a company that sells AI, and covers only 37 countries so far.

IT Brew

A free newsletter and news site for IT professionals from Morning Brew, published four times a week, covering cybersecurity, cloud, hardware, IT operations, software and the practical side of AI adoption inside companies. Stories are short, reported, and written from the perspective of the people who have to run the systems — patching, asset inventories, wi-fi troubleshooting, legacy migration — rather than the vendors selling to them. Also runs free virtual events and digital guides.

Why I recommend it: Free to read on the site and free to subscribe — the subscribe box asks for an email, but nothing is paywalled. This is one of the better free ways to learn the vocabulary of an IT job you have not had yet, because it covers the unglamorous work that interviews actually ask about. Two things to keep in mind: it is ad and sponsor funded, so sponsored posts sit alongside the reporting and you should check the byline and any 'presented by' line; and it is written for people already inside IT departments, so expect jargon on first read.

Work Forward Resources Library

A regularly updated free collection of articles, videos, podcast appearances, research findings, books and downloadable tools on the future of work, from Brian Elliott's advisory firm Work Forward. Filterable by format and by topic — career development, culture at work, diversity and inclusion, flexibility, generative AI, leadership and management, return to office, technology adoption, and time and meeting management.

Why I recommend it: The downloadable tools are the part worth your time — they give you language for asking a manager about flexibility or AI workload without sounding like you are complaining. Elliott founded Future Forum at Slack and is unusually blunt about not trusting vendor-published studies, which is a point in his favor. Still: this is an advisory firm's library, so it exists to demonstrate expertise it sells. Read it for the questions, not the verdicts.