Becoming Dauntless

For decades, enterprise innovation followed a playbook: wait for Microsoft, Oracle, Google, or the next Silicon Valley unicorn to ship something groundbreaking, scramble to integrate it into your org, maybe pay Accenture in suitcases of money to help with onboarding. The innovation was reactive, and your job was adoption, not creation

That era is over. And has been for a while

What upset the apple cart? AI. But also, we're living through an unprecedented compression of innovation cycles. Agentic AI achieved 35% enterprise adoption in just two years. Not fast enough for the VC funding the tech and looking for an exit, but a breakneck pace compared to something like cloud adoption, which I believe is in its 12th year.

What the Winners are Doing: As one analyst put it, "The real edge is now in proprietary data and reinforcement learning loops, not just algorithms". Big tech can build the most sophisticated LLMs and computer vision models, but without your proprietary data (your engineering data, customer interactions, your operational procedures, your sensor readings, your domain-specific knowledge), those models are generic.

There are three ways to get here:

1. Upskill your current innovation workforce in custom model training, which most techy companies opt for, or

2. Buy an AI company that’s doing what you need to do, like when AECOM acquired Consigli for $390M last November, or

3. Work with an agency or venture lab like Dauntless Studios to build what you need.

This is what the top 1% winners are doing, NOT what most businesses are doing.

Despite this shift toward proprietary advantage, 76% of enterprises are now buying AI solutions rather than building them internally, a reversal from 47% just a year ago. Enterprise AI spending hit $37 billion in 2025, but it's flowing to platforms and applications, not development.

What solutions enterprises are buying is also contracting. Where businesses might have kept 15-20 AI vendors a year ago is down to 3-5 core platforms. CFOs want measurable ROI as the experimentation budget is getting reallocated to proven solutions.

This means that while overall AI investment continues to grow, it's concentrating among fewer providers. The losers are doing "AI innovation theater" messing with pilots that never reach production, while the one percenters are building their own thing, whether internally, through acquisition, or co-creating.

Tech News to Make You Smarter

• A Real Glimpse at Google’s Project Aura. (XR Today). Yes, more smart glasses. This time, Google provides the software and AI while XReal provides the optics and frames (including the Sony micro OLED display). The first available version will be wired much like the current XReals. I think this is a net good for smart glasses, as it gives developers an Android option to launch on. What I want to know is how see through the lens is. Current XReals are very dark (the display is awwwe-some though) and I’d be hesitant to walk around with a display up. Not a dealbreaker, but a second screen is a different use case to an on-the-go heads-up display style assistant.

• The $160,000 Mechanic Job That Ford Can’t Fill (WSJ - paywall). We started Dauntless XR because we saw a change in the career landscape approaching, so stories like this aren’t a surprise. In Ford’s case, it’s the physical toll of the job, the five years to achieve the $100k threshold, and the need for newcomers to buy $10,000 or more of their own tools that’s driving people away. These are problems automation technology can help solve (except for buying $10K worth of tools, that's absurd). We spoke about the future of blue-collar work on this week’s podcast episode.

• What CES 2026 Told Us About the Future of the XR Industry. (LinkedIn). And no, it’s not that the metaverse is dead.

Saved on Socials

The posts, memes, job postings, and videos that caught my attention this week:

• NaaS: No As A Service. (Instagram). You’re welcome.

• Microsoft and the Journal Nature Have some ‘Splaining to do about their Quantum Breakthrough (Instagram). Commenting to stay on this side of social media.

• Meta Denied my AI Upgrade (Instagram).

Recently Played >

What we listened to this week

• Where to look for high-paying jobs (after AI takes yours)

Overheard on Slack

Enter the chat. What our devs are talking about…

• “FYI, travel insurance excludes war” - summer travel 2026 is going to be interesting.

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