Field notes on AI in business
Practical writing on AI, automation and the day-to-day work of running a business. From the team that builds and runs AI systems.
Company analysis
Using Patent Data to Understand a Company's Innovation Pipeline
Patent filings reveal where a company invests its R&D effort. Filing volumes, technology classifications, citation patterns, and inventor networks all provide strategic insight.
Basel IsmailMar 26, 2026
Advisory
What Corporate Advisory Firms Look for in Target Companies
Beyond financial metrics, advisory firms evaluate market position defensibility, integration complexity, culture compatibility, and key person dependency in target companies.
Basel IsmailMar 26, 2026
Company analysis
How Small Business Owners Can Use Company Analysis on Themselves
Running a company analysis on your own business reveals what customers, competitors, and partners actually see. The outside-in perspective helps small business owners fix blind spots.
Basel IsmailMar 26, 2026
Company analysis
Security Headers and SSL as Business Quality Indicators
Security headers are the unglamorous plumbing of the web. A company that invests in them is investing in things that only matter if you care about doing things right.
Basel IsmailMar 26, 2026
Company analysis
What a Company's Hiring Patterns Actually Reveal About Its Strategy
Job postings are strategic documents. When analyzed collectively, hiring patterns form one of the clearest maps of where a company is actually headed.
Basel IsmailMar 25, 2026
Company analysis
Why Financial Statements Only Tell Half the Story
Financial statements measure outcomes. The qualitative signals that don't show up in any spreadsheet often tell you what's about to happen.
Basel IsmailMar 25, 2026
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Artificial intelligence
How AI Is Changing the Speed of Investment Decisions
AI is compressing investment analysis from weeks to hours. What faster analysis means for deal velocity, competitive dynamics, and the balance between speed and judgment.
Basel IsmailMar 25, 2026
Automation
The Problem With Manual Company Research in 2026
Tab-heavy browser sessions, copy-pasting into spreadsheets, losing track of sources. Manual company research does not scale in a world with this much data.
Basel IsmailMar 25, 2026
Artificial intelligence
Natural Language Processing and What It Means for Business Analysis
NLP turns unstructured text into structured data. For business analysis, that means extracting real signals from thousands of reviews, news articles, and filings at a scale manual reading cannot match.
Basel IsmailMar 25, 2026
Artificial intelligence
AI-Powered Reputation Analysis Goes Beyond Star Ratings
A 4.2-star rating tells you almost nothing about a company. AI-powered reputation analysis surfaces the patterns, trends, and authenticity signals that aggregate ratings hide.
Basel IsmailMar 25, 2026
Business intelligence
Company Analysis for Journalists and Investigative Reporters
Investigative reporters and financial analysts share overlapping methods. Corporate registries, beneficial ownership, financial patterns, and digital footprints can strengthen business journalism.
Basel IsmailMar 25, 2026
Business intelligence
The Rise of Continuous Company Monitoring
Point-in-time company analysis misses what changes between reviews. Continuous monitoring of job postings, reviews, news, and filings catches meaningful shifts as they happen.
Basel IsmailMar 25, 2026
1,319 articles