FROM THE TRENCHES Issue №244

Opinions, Not Press Releases

Browse a curated front page, then move through focused topic and cluster hubs without losing older work to chronology.

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06
Focused clusters
12
Blog posts
244

Latest articles

Nine articles per page, ordered by publication date.

Why context, not intelligence, was the real bottleneck in software AI & Agents

The Bottleneck Was Never Intelligence. It Was Context.

Rakuten reported a seven-hour Claude Code session on vLLM with 99.9% numerical accuracy for one method. What the vendor case study shows, what it does not, and how to build a reviewable agent workflow.

ChatGPT Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot and a custom RAG build compared for a DACH company AI & Agents

ChatGPT Enterprise vs Copilot vs Custom RAG

Which should a DACH company shortlist? A neutral procurement guide to workflow fit, product terms, location controls, permissions, compliance roles, and total operating cost.

Where your AI data is stored and processed across EU residency options Business & Regulation

EU Data Residency for AI APIs in 2026: Provider Guide

Compare EU storage and inference guarantees across OpenAI, Azure, Mistral, AWS and self-hosting. Current endpoints, transfer caveats and a procurement checklist.

Security, IP and investor-readiness due diligence for apps built with Lovable, Bolt and Replit Delivery & QA

Lovable, Bolt, and Replit App Due Diligence

Before you raise or sell on a vibe-coded app, three questions decide whether it survives diligence: is it safe, do you own it, can anyone maintain it? The security, IP, and investor checklist.

The four AI funding routes in Austria for 2026 Business & Regulation

AI Funding in Austria 2026: aws, FFG, Premium, KMU.DIGITAL

The four AI funding routes in Austria for 2026, honestly assessed: aws for adoption, FFG for R&D, the 14% research premium, and KMU.DIGITAL. Plus the catch nobody mentions: open calls and budget.

How to roll out AI internally in 2026 without shelfware Leadership & Teams

How to Roll Out AI Internally in 2026

A staged internal AI rollout: align the team, map the process and alternatives, define a baseline, settle data and risk questions, pilot one bounded workflow, then expand or stop on evidence.

MCP, RAG, Agent Skills and Custom GPTs compared as layers of one AI system AI & Agents

MCP vs RAG vs Agent Skills vs Custom GPTs

Not four answers to one question, but four layers: RAG for knowledge, MCP for connectivity, Skills for procedure, Custom GPTs as a packaged surface. A decision tree, and why you usually compose them.

Fractional CTPO vs a fractional CTO and CPO Leadership & Teams

Fractional CTPO vs CTO and CPO

When one combined product-and-technology lead can reduce handoffs, when to split the remit, and how to assess capacity, independence, decision rights, and continuity without a fixed team-size rule.

Technical due diligence checklist for an AI MVP before a funding round Product & MVP

Technical Due Diligence for AI MVPs Before Funding

A practical evidence-room checklist: evaluation design, serving configuration, task-level economics, privacy, security, data rights, and the artifacts a reviewer can test.

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