Build to Thrive | The AI Blueprint | Week of February 9th, 2026
Prompts, Tools and Trends to Grow Smarter, Scale your Business and Stay Ahead.
Build to Thrive caters to professionals and founders seeking clarity, leverage, and income in the new AI economy. It is built for people navigating real transitions and applying what they know to new opportunities as the rules of business change. As a subscriber, you get thoughtful deep dives, timely insights, and practical operating systems you can use to build and adapt in real time. As a paid subscriber, you unlock full access to every article, premium prompts, and our growing library of tools, while joining a community of more than 4,000 founders and aspiring entrepreneurs navigating this path together.
Editorial Note
The world is going from Bach to Vivaldi
Over the past two weeks, three AI stories stood out.
1. A warning
Dario Amodei argued that humanity is acquiring technological power faster than it is building the structures to govern it.
2. A signal
Days later, AI agents were reported to be coordinating in ways humans could not easily understand, including developing their own shared language.
3. A shift
Now, platforms like Rent-a-Human have appeared, where AI agents can hire humans to carry out real-world tasks.
None of these events is dramatic on its own.
What matters is the speed and sequence.
• Power before regulation
• Optimization beyond human legibility
• Direct coordination of human labor
All of this unfolded in less than two weeks.
Faster than policy cycles.
Faster than institutional response.
Faster than most people are even tracking.
Amodei’s message was not alarmism. It was a wake-up call.
The real question now is whether we are still early enough to guide the trajectory of AI in a deliberate way, or whether momentum has already begun to set the direction for us.
As for Vivaldi…are we approaching Presto?
I have added three articles I wrote on these subjects to this edition.
Come along to uncover the signal with me.
JS
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Table of Contents
Clarity Prompts
Disruptive Ketnote topic
Revenue Reality Check Calculator
Human Sovereignty AI Signature Prompt
Featured Articles
How Anthropic Set Off a Trillion-Dollar Software Repricing
AI Agents Just Built Their Own Social Network. Humans Not Allowed to Post
AI Agents Are Now Hiring Humans, and 7,856 People Already Signed Up to Work
Build to Thrive Live
The Future of Education with Dr Sam Illingworth - Top 10 voices rising in education
AI Automation Leverage (30 day edition)
Practical, operator-focused take on AI-driven change, less hype, more what actually works. Where leaders should start, what to ignore, and real examples of AI improving day-to-day workflows without big, risky rollouts.
Premium Prompt: Your COO Leverage Coach
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Clarity Prompts
Three thinking guardrails for when AI stops being a tool and starts becoming infrastructure.
Most founders aren’t struggling because AI is too weak.
They’re struggling because AI is being dropped into systems that were never designed to scale judgment, coordination, or signal-reading.
This week, I’m introducing three prompts designed to do something different.
They don’t generate content.
They don’t automate blindly.
They protect leverage, agency, and strategic clarity as AI moves closer to the core of how work actually gets done.
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DISRUPTIVE KEYNOTE TOPIC
The Incision Point is a signal-driven newsletter focused on the economics, clinical innovation, and leadership forces reshaping modern orthopedics. It cuts through institutional inertia, administrative bloat, and surface-level healthcare commentary to examine how joint replacement, ambulatory surgery, and surgeon-led models are redefining cost, quality, and patient outcomes.
In a healthcare system strained by bureaucracy and misaligned incentives, The Incision Point stands out for its unapologetic, data-driven perspective from the front lines of arthroplasty. If you care about where musculoskeletal care is actually heading, how surgeons can reclaim autonomy, and what clinical and business decisions will define the next era of orthopedic practice, this is a perspective worth following
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REVENUE REALITY CHECK CALCULATOR
The AI Sales Lab is a signal-driven newsletter focused on practical AI workflows, prompts, and systems that help B2B sales teams reclaim time and hit quota. It cuts through AI hype, tool overload, and consultant theory to surface real experiments with CRMs, automation platforms, LLMs, and workflows that actually work in live sales environments.
In a sales tech landscape crowded with shiny tools and empty promises, The AI Sales Lab stands out by testing everything in the field and keeping only what survives real-world use. If you care about which AI tools actually matter, how to stack workflows that compound, and how to use LLMs to become a better seller rather than just a faster one, this is a perspective worth following.
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HUMAN SOVEREIGNITY AI SIGNATURE PROMPT
HumanSovereigntyAI™ is a signal-driven newsletter focused on the architecture, power dynamics, and long-term consequences of artificial intelligence as it scales into core societal systems. It cuts through hype-driven capability debates and surface-level ethics to examine where real authority is being embedded in code, incentives, and design decisions that quietly shape human agency.
In an AI landscape dominated by acceleration, optimization, and extraction, HumanSovereigntyAI stands apart by treating sovereignty as a first-order design constraint. If you care about where AI is actually heading, how responsibility and control are being redistributed, and what architectural choices will determine whether humans remain decision-makers rather than system inputs, this is a perspective worth following.
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Featured Articles
How Anthropic Set Off a Trillion-Dollar Software Repricing
AI Agents Just Built Their Own Social Network. Humans Not Allowed to Post
AI Agents Are Now Hiring Humans, and 7,856 People Already Signed Up to Work
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The Future of Education with Dr Sam Illingworth
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AI Automation Leverage - Grow Margins
January Edition
Practical, operator-focused take on AI-driven change, less hype, more what actually works. Where leaders should start, what to ignore, and real examples of AI improving day-to-day workflows without big, risky rollouts.
You know that moment when you add an “AI tool” and somehow you’re doing more work, not less? Usually it’s because the tool generated words, but didn’t create an outcome. No artifact, no follow-through, no audit trail. You’re still the glue.
What changed recently is simple: a few products started behaving less like “assistants” and more like junior operators. They can run on a schedule, act inside your existing tools, and leave behind something durable you can point to later.
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Start here (3 steps)
Pick one workflow you touch every day: inbox triage, scheduling, lead intake, or weekly reporting.
Run a 7-day pilot with one metric (response time, hours saved, fewer misses).
If it works, expand. If it doesn’t, turn it off cleanly and move on.
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What to ignore this month
“The model is smarter” updates that don’t change your workflow surface.
Anything requiring custom training, complex data plumbing, or heavy setup.
Tools that only draft text but do not write back to a system you rely on.
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KEY LEVERAGE MILESTONES IN JANUARY
Coordination Ops (less chasing, faster cycle time)
Key event: Slackbot becomes a context-aware AI agent inside Slack.
Source: Meet Slackbot: Your Personal AI Agent for Work (January 13, 2026)
Where this fits: internal handoffs, “what did we decide?”, daily wrap-ups
Leverage example: Before: decisions lived in chat and you chased owners. After: Slackbot produces a recap with next steps. Result: fewer meetings and fewer “status?” pings.
Deploy in <60 minutes: daily 4:30pm → Slackbot summarizes “Decisions + Owners + Due dates” from one channel → output artifact: posted recap message → metric: cut status pings by 50%.
Safe test (7 days): run in one channel only; measure status pings; rollback by stopping the daily recap prompt.
Estimated Economic benefit: save ~10–20 hours/month across 2 people (~$500–$1,000/month at $50/hr).
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Key event: Gemini improves Google Calendar “Suggested times” using real constraints (time zones, conflicts, working hours).
Source: Better suggestions for meeting times with Gemini in Google Calendar (January 26, 2026)
Where this fits: sales scheduling, vendor calls, hiring screens
Leverage example: Before: scheduling 3–4 people took email ping-pong. After: you pick viable slots immediately. Result: meetings happen sooner and reschedules drop.
Deploy in <60 minutes: when inviting 3+ attendees → use Suggested times → output artifact: confirmed calendar event → metric: scheduling time under 2 minutes/meeting.
Safe test (7 days): use only for multi-attendee meetings; track scheduling back-and-forth; rollback by reverting to manual scheduling.
Estimated Economic benefit: save ~2–4 hours/month (~$80–$160/month at $40/hr), plus faster cycle time.
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Reporting and Knowledge Ops (your source of truth stops being you)
Key event: ChatGPT adds Tasks so it can run scheduled work and notify you when done.
Source: Tasks in ChatGPT (Updated late January 2026)
Where this fits: weekly reporting, recurring follow-ups, reminders you always skip
Leverage example: Before: you rebuilt the same weekly update from scratch. After: it’s drafted automatically and you only review. Result: reporting becomes a 5-minute approval step.
Deploy in <60 minutes: every Mon 8am → generate weekly update from your notes → output artifact: ready-to-send email/Slack post → metric: save 2 hours/week.
Safe test (7 days): run for one report only; measure time spent; rollback by deleting the scheduled task.
Estimated Economic benefit: ~8 hours/month (~$320/month at $40/hr). Stop renting this out: weekly status updates.
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Key event: NotebookLM notebooks can be added as a source inside the Gemini app (grounded answers from your notebook).
Source: Take your notebooks further by adding NotebookLM as a source in the Gemini app (January 27, 2026)
Where this fits: SOPs, vendor comparisons, policy-heavy operations
Leverage example: Before: you re-read docs to answer repeat questions. After: Gemini answers from your notebook. Result: fewer “go find it” loops and fewer mistakes.
Deploy in <60 minutes: build one NotebookLM notebook (SOPs/FAQs) → add as Gemini source → output artifact: reusable answers/snippets → metric: save 30–60 min/week searching.
Safe test (7 days): limit to one notebook; track time spent searching; rollback by removing the notebook source.
Economic benefit: ~2–4 hours/month (~$80–$160/month at $40/hr).
Why this is leverage now: native integration + grounded responses.
Honorable mentions (Reporting and Knowledge Ops)
Proofread your email with Gemini in Gmail: fewer revision loops on high-stakes emails (sales, collections, support).
ChatGPT release notes: a quick “operator radar” for small changes that remove friction.
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Execution Ops (automations that don’t silently die)
Key event: Make improves scenario history and run replay so you can debug and backfill automation runs.
Source: Scenario history and run replay improvements, app updates (January 9, 2026)
Where this fits: lead intake routing, support triage, invoicing admin
Leverage example: Before: an automation failed once and you went manual. After: you replay runs and recover missed work. Result: automations stay live instead of abandoned.
Deploy in <60 minutes: new lead form submission → classify + route → output artifact: logged lead + follow-up task → metric: respond in <15 minutes.
Safe test (7 days): run on one lead source only; track response time; rollback by turning off the scenario and reverting to manual logging.
Economic benefit: save ~7–10 hours/month (~$280–$400/month at $40/hr). Stop renting this out: manual data entry and routing.
Why this is leverage now: auditability + replay (reliability mechanism).
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Key event: Make ships “AI Agents (New)” for building decision-making agents inside scenarios.
Source: Introduction to Make AI Agents (New) (February 2, 2026)
Where this fits: lead qualification, routing decisions, support categorization
Leverage example: Before: you manually decided who handles each request. After: an agent classifies and routes automatically. Result: less triage and faster handoffs.
Deploy in <60 minutes: new inbound request → agent classifies intent/priority → output artifact: assigned task or routed message → metric: cut triage time by 50%.
Safe test (7 days): run in “suggest mode” first (human approves); rollback by disabling the agent module in the scenario.
Estimated Economic benefit: save ~5–15 hours/month (~$200–$600/month at $40/hr), depending on volume.
Why this is leverage now: persistent agent embedded in automation.
Honorable mentions (Execution Ops)
Build an agent in Zapier Agents: a simple path to agents that can act across apps.
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What Matters
Here’s the operator lens: drafting is cheap now. Follow-through is still expensive. The best “AI” right now is the kind that reduces coordination and creates artifacts you can trust later.
If you want one place to start: pick a workflow that creates business risk when it slips (slow lead response, missed support follow-ups, weekly reporting that never ships). Pilot one automation for 7 days. Keep what sticks. Ignore the rest.
Founder reflection
What is one recurring outcome you still “manage by memory” that should instead produce a durable artifact every time?
Editor’s note: We will start segmenting Automations, Strategy and Narrative in 30 day blocks, as opposed to weekly. This gives us a better signal of the terrain and our ability to dig deeper into Actionable Insight that Deliver Results. We appreciate your feedback…always!
Stop Bleeding
If your week is high stakes, leads are going cold, support is piling up, cash is delayed, and you’re the human glue keeping it together, this is for you.
Paid subscribers get my Leverage Diagnostic, a Socratic COO-style interview that cuts through noise and tells you exactly what to automate first, how to pilot it in 7 days, what metric to track, and how to roll it back safely.
This is for paid subscribers only. It’s built for operators who need leverage now, not another list of tools.
Go to the Vault
LINKS & RESOURCES
Website:
https://juansalasromer.com
Business Health Check: https://juansalasromer.com/diagnostic
Experience to Income Guide: https://juansalasromer.com/monetization
The Vault (Tools, tactics & prompt library)
The Builder’s Store:
https://juansalasromer.com/tools-marketplace
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Leverage often comes from removing coordination friction first.
Great Prompts as always. Love these