Arguments I can defend with data, about where the web is going and what it costs to arrive late.
There is no CMS behind this page. Every essay is a file in the repository, reviewed and shipped from git, which is the same claim the writing makes.
19 essays
July 30, 2026
Built with AI5 min read
WordPress peaked at 43.6% of all websites in 2025 and posted its first decline since W3Techs began tracking in 2011. Bob Michaels, building the web since 1994, argues the CMS era is sunsetting: websites are becoming software again, built with AI, readable by AI, and transacting with AI.
Read the essay →July 28, 2026
Built with AI10 min read
Human in the loop usually means a person is present. Human in control means a person can inspect the evidence, stop the action, and own the decision. Here is the approval map to draw before you automate: action classes, named owners, evidence packets, four decision states, and the thresholds that keep it from becoming bureaucracy.
Read the essay →July 23, 2026
Built with AI9 min read
An AI agent is a stateful business process with tools and permissions, and it should be evaluated like one. Here is the four-class test matrix (normal, edge, adversarial, forbidden), the trace record, the two scores that must stay separate, and the release gates that decide production.
Read the essay →July 21, 2026
Built with AI9 min read
A multi-model strategy is a stable task contract with portable evidence, and the vendors' own documentation explains why you need one: models retire on the provider's clock, notice windows run from two weeks to six months, and compatible APIs cover the request shape, never the behavior. Here is the dependency map and the exit test.
Read the essay →July 16, 2026
Built with AI9 min read
Teams are picking knowledge architecture off a model feature. The right way to choose between retrieval, long context, and a hybrid is six variables: volume, freshness, permissions, citations, cost, and latency. Here is the decision matrix, with the honest case for each side.
Read the essay →July 14, 2026
Built with AI9 min read
Retrieval is a component. Grounding is a contract: for consequential claims, the system cites approved evidence, states uncertainty, or declines, and logs which one happened. Here is the contract, the standard behind it, and the test that tells you whether a system honors it.
Read the essay →July 9, 2026
Readable by AI8 min read
Losing the AI comparison is a finding, and findings have a method. Here is the loop I run to move the recommendation: query on a locked list, decode why the winner wins, engineer that evidence on your domain with one consolidated message, and verify by retesting. With the measured results, honestly framed.
Read the essay →July 7, 2026
Readable by AI8 min read
The competitor list in your deck and the competitor field AI compares you against are two different lists, and only the second one shapes who gets recommended. Here is the discovery protocol: three query types, five platforms, and the frequency record that turns answers into a field.
Read the essay →July 2, 2026
Readable by AI8 min read
Topic chasing is the keyword-and-coverage playbook, and it measures inputs. The head-to-head measures who AI actually recommends. Here is the difference, the evidence for both halves, and how to keep your content program while changing its finish line.
Read the essay →June 30, 2026
Readable by AI8 min read
Success in business is more customers than your competition, and buyers increasingly ask AI who to choose. That makes the competitive head-to-head the only AI visibility metric that matters. Here is the lens, and how to run it.
Read the essay →June 25, 2026
Built with AI7 min read
AI interfaces stream text, update live, and fail in new ways, and every one of those behaviors has an accessibility contract. Here is how WCAG maps onto chat and agent interfaces, and why it belongs in architecture, not remediation.
Read the essay →June 23, 2026
Readable by AI7 min read
Your site has a second audience that never sees the design: crawlers, models, and agents. Here is the executive audit of what machines can actually read, grouped into five checks, with the traps that make markup lie.
Read the essay →June 18, 2026
Readable by AI8 min read
Every indexed URL is an evidence address that search engines and AI systems already trust. Here is the migration checklist that preserves the addresses, the meaning, and the machine-readable evidence through a rebuild.
Read the essay →June 16, 2026
Readable by AI8 min read
Before any redesign, inventory every public claim by entity, audience, source, date, and approval status. The contradictions you find are the real project. Here is the audit schema.
Read the essay →June 11, 2026
Readable by AI8 min read
An AI visibility report is not a plan. Route each finding by its failure type, six types, each with its own owner, smallest publishable correction, and acceptance test, then retest on locked queries.
Read the essay →June 9, 2026
Readable by AI8 min read
A repeatable AI visibility measurement starts with a locked query library: five query families mapped to real buyer situations, versioned wording, paraphrase cohorts, and full run metadata. Here is the design canvas.
Read the essay →June 4, 2026
Readable by AI8 min read
An AI answer can print a URL the model never retrieved. Here is the URL gate that separates asserted citations from grounding evidence, and the six states every citation should pass through.
Read the essay →June 2, 2026
Readable by AI9 min read
AI visibility is five separate measurements: discovery, narrative fidelity, citation, head-to-head choice, and recommendation. Here is what to record so the number tells you what to fix.
Read the essay →May 28, 2026
Built with AI9 min read
Agent permissions are being granted by integration scope instead of business consequence. Seven action classes need a named human owner no matter how automated execution gets: external communication, publication, financial commitment, access changes, destructive data actions, production deployment, and legal representation. Here is the list, with the bounded exceptions that keep it fast.
Read the essay →How this page works
Each essay is a typed entry in a registry and a component in the repository. The index, the sitemap, and the feed all read that one source, so publishing is a commit and nothing can drift out of sync. I build client sites the same way.