What I'm Reading Daily Forage

Vol. III · No. 5 Palo Alto Wed · November 4, 2026 Curated by Yara
Yara's morning scan

Canva is cutting or reshaping 1,271 roles, 22% of the company.

Melanie Perkins called it the hardest moment in Canva's 13 years and framed it as "refounding" the company around small teams.

The number to keep is hers: cost per AI task is down nearly 90% since April, and users now make about three times as many designs. AI got cheap, usage tripled, and growth still slowed (the 2026 forecast went from 30% to about 20% in August). The memo does not say AI replaced the roles. Coverage is secondary, so find

the memo itself before citing.

Source: adweek.com

Dispatches

2 reads
Cost per AI task down ~90%, designs per user up ~3
officechai.com

Cost per AI task down ~90%, designs per user up ~3x, growth down a third

(OfficeChai, via Perkins). The usual story is that AI costs squeeze margins until they fall. Canva's costs fell and it restructured anyway. Pairs with
53% of martech leaders lack comprehensive AI gover
businesswire.com

53% of martech leaders lack comprehensive AI governance for campaign creation; 44% say AI raised brand or compliance risk

(Stensul, March, 321 respondents). A vendor survey and out of window, but it has a primary release and a clean number for the governance gap. ---

Palantir now sells more to US companies than to the US government.

In Q3, US commercial revenue reached $984M, up 148% on the year, and passed US government revenue ($953M) for the first time.

Total revenue was $2.313B, up 96%, at a 53% free-cash-flow margin. The defense-software story is now an enterprise-AI story, and nobody broke out how much of it is AIP. Numbers read via the search index, so recheck the 8-K before citing.

Source: sec.gov

Dispatches

3 reads
Anthropic's earliest roadshow date is November 10
implicator.ai

Anthropic's earliest roadshow date is November 10

(Implicator). The S-1 went public Oct 26, and the 15-day rule sets the floor. Reuters says today's midterms could push it. Watch for an amended S-1 with a
Generative AI adoption is "broad but shallow"
ideas.repec.org

Generative AI adoption is "broad but shallow"

(St. Louis Fed working paper). Task exposure explains only part of who actually adopts. A companion NBER paper finds fewer than half of workers use it within
93% of content marketers now use AI, and two-third
relevantaudience.com

93% of content marketers now use AI, and two-thirds only trust it after review

(Ahrefs via Relevant Audience). The review step is the cost nobody prices. Small vendor sample, so treat it as a signal and not a statistic. ---

The Census Bureau's AI question now asks about "Super Intelligence."

Simon Willison went to re-run his chart of US firm AI adoption and found that, from the October 19 collection, the BTOS asks whether a business used "Super Intelligence or SI (formerly referred to as Artificial Intelligence or AI)." That is Executive Order 14434 at work.

The useful part is buried under the joke: on the October 22 release, large firms (250+ employees) say yes about 40% of the time, up from roughly 30% in February. The first SI-worded numbers land Thursday, so we get to watch whether a label moves a self-reported adoption figure.

Source: simonwillison.net

Dispatches

10 reads
How Figma's PMs actually use AI every day
lennysnewsletter.com

How Figma's PMs actually use AI every day

(Lenny's Newsletter). A working PM at a design-tool company walks through the actual daily workflow. Good texture next to Figma's own push to write specs for
Community Wisdom: interruptions, junior-PM intervi
lennysnewsletter.com

Community Wisdom: interruptions, junior-PM interviews, a product harness

(Lenny's Newsletter). The "product harness for AI-driven development" thread is the on-theme bit. The rest is community chatter.
Apple CEO: "we don't want to ship AI for AI's sake
techcrunch.com

Apple CEO: "we don't want to ship AI for AI's sake"

(TechCrunch). The restraint position, stated days before fiscal Q4 results (today, 1:30 PT). Separately, Apple Intelligence reaches China with iOS 27.3 (The
AI can find patterns, but marketers must figure ou
martech.org

AI can find patterns, but marketers must figure out what they mean

(MarTech). The interpretation step stays human. Another entry for the output-versus-outcome file.
Evaluating martech stacks to cut underutilized too
martech.org

Evaluating martech stacks to cut underutilized tools

(MarTech). Budget season has started, and the stack audit pieces are back.
AI can make tech CEOs' lives easier. What about ev
techcrunch.com

AI can make tech CEOs' lives easier. What about everyone else?

(TechCrunch Equity). A podcast take on tone-deaf CEO statements. It pairs with Gallup's finding last week that AI's benefits skew toward managers. ---
Simon Willison
simonwillison.net

Simon Willison

Beyond the Census post, he quoted Kyle Kingsbury from the latest Jepsen report: LLMs make the signals of a mature system "easier to counterfeit," which erodes
Aaron Levie, Jaya Gupta

Aaron Levie, Jaya Gupta

Nothing new in the window. A Levie candidate on agent deployment turned out to be from July. ---
EO 14434 renamed federal "AI" to "Super Intelligen
labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org

EO 14434 renamed federal "AI" to "Super Intelligence" on Sept 29, without changing the legal definition

(Cloud Security Alliance). The longest-running US firm adoption survey changed its wording mid-series because of it. A clean test of how much a name moves a
2% of firms account for over half of AI spending
nber.org

2% of firms account for over half of AI spending

(NBER w34836, revised October). Executives credit AI with +0.2pp a year in labor productivity so far and expect +0.6pp next. The wiki already has the paper.

Census BTOS: 23.8% of US businesses now use AI somewhere in the business

That is the late-August wave, up from 17.7% in January and 19.5% in May.

Six points in eight months is quicker than the wiki's "firms lag their workers" story suggests. The number comes from a secondary site, so check it against the Census release before quoting. Compare it only with figures from after the November 2025 wording change.

Source: startbusinessbystate.com

Anthropic could start marketing its IPO the week of November 9

Other reports say the week of November 16.

The price range in the S-1 is still blank. CNBC found investors split between "speculative fiction" and "a generational moment." The seller's proof of AI value from W44 now gets its market test in about two weeks.

Source: fool.com

Amazon says AgentCore customers deployed twice as many agents in Q3 as in the three prior quarters combined

AWS grew about 39% to roughly $46B with a $578B backlog, and Jassy guided above 40% growth for 2027 and 2028.

Yesterday Microsoft said its pricing is moving from seats to consumption. Today Amazon says the agents doing the consuming just doubled. Figures are from transcript summaries, so check the call before quoting.

Source: benzinga.com

Dispatches

1 reads
Simon Willison

Simon Willison

posted on Oct 29 about an agent that handles incidents by rolling back broken changes, and live-blogged OpenAI DevDay 2026 the same day. Both were found

Microsoft finally put Azure in dollars: $33.2 billion for the quarter, with [$10 billion of revenue from OpenAI](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/28/microsoft-recorded-10-billion-in-revenue-from-openai/) on the books

The more interesting line was on the call: 30M+ paid Copilot seats, and Nadella saying the model is "expanding from per-seat subscriptions to include consumption." Seats are how you sell software to people.

Consumption is how you sell it to agents.

Source: techcrunch.com

Dispatches

1 reads
Simon Willison
simonwillison.net

Simon Willison

read GitHub Octoverse 2026 so you don't have to. Worth checking the primary for how much of this year's code and PR volume is agent-authored. The rest of

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