In The Loop

Jack Houghton

Stay in the loop with the biggest stories in AI—without the noise and nonsense. Each week, Jack Houghton (CPO at Mindset AI) unpacks the latest news, research, and product trends shaping the future of artificial intelligence. From OpenAI breakthroughs to unicorn startups, In The Loop delivers sharp, less than 20-minute episodes packed with insights for product leaders, engineers, and AI-curious innovators. Subscribe to get smarter about AI, every week. Don't forget to rate and share the show with other AI enthusiasts. Check out Mindset AI: https://bit.ly/40lJr6B

  1. Claude Cowork: How To Use It & Why It Matters

    29 JAN

    Claude Cowork: How To Use It & Why It Matters

    Anthropic just launched Claude Cowork—the same powerful agent behind Claude Code, now accessible to everyone without touching a terminal. In this episode of In The Loop, I break down how this desktop tool manages local files, controls browsers, and runs parallel AI tasks. I walk through practical examples—from organizing receipts to building custom folder-based agent systems—and explain why this represents a platform moment. The interface feels slower than doing things manually, but the real power emerges when you run multiple agents simultaneously and build systems that compound over time. Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Apple will follow this pattern. ⏭️ Episode Highlights (00:50) – What Claude Cowork actually is and how it differs from Claude Code (04:18) – Managing files, browsers, and external systems with explicit permissions (14:58) – Processing hundreds of documents, organizing files with AI, and unlocking APIs without coding (18:14) – Why this is a platform moment that will reshape how the industry builds products (20:57) – Start simple, download the app, and build your advantage now 🔗 Links & Resources Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀 🤝 We’re Social Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast. Jack Houghton LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/  TikTok - @jackschats  Mindset Ai Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B  Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI  TikTok - @get.mindset.ai

    24 min
  2. Nine AI Trends For 2026

    22 JAN

    Nine AI Trends For 2026

    A year ago, building clever chat interfaces was strategic work. Now, it's just table stakes. Most SaaS products now offer some sort of chat interface—so how can you gain a competitive advantage in 2026? In this episode of In The Loop, I'm sharing my top ninepredictions for 2026, starting with why differentiation has moved away from the interface layer.  I'llsI'll walk through where effort is redirecting, why traditional workflows break under real-world complexity, and why testing AI at scale is about to become critical. Let’s dive into the nine AI trends I don't think you can afford to ignore. ✋ Register to my upcoming webinar AI In 2026: What You Need To Ship This Year ⏭️ Episode Highlights (00:00) – Why AI expectations still outstrip reality (01:25) – User interface revolution: Differentiation, unique intelligence, visual conversations (Trends 1–3) (08:10) – How AI agents are built Agent reasoning vs workflows, conversational building, agent testing at scale (Trends 4–6) (14:15) – How work will change: Doers become agent managers, forward-deployed domain experts (Trends 7–9) (17:50) – What this means for your 2026 strategy 🔗 Links & Resources Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀 🤝 We're Social Stay in the loop—even when you're not listening to this podcast. Jack Houghton LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/  TikTok - @jackschats  Mindset Ai Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B  Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI  TikTok - @get.mindset.ai

    19 min
  3. Everything You Need To Know About GPT-5.2 In 10 Mins

    18/12/2025

    Everything You Need To Know About GPT-5.2 In 10 Mins

    OpenAI just dropped GPT-5.2, and it's their most focused release yet. No AGI promises this time—just real improvements for professional work. In this final episode of 2025, I break down what actually matters about this release. You'll learn about the three model versions (Instant, Thinking, and Pro Extended Thinking), massive context window upgrades, and genuine breakthroughs in spreadsheets and presentations. I also cover what still lags behind—speed issues, writing quality versus Claude, and where hallucinations still creep in. Join me for the last In The Loop episode of the year. ⏭️ Episode Highlights (00:55) – OpenAI's GPT 5.2 release (GpT Garlic) and what it means (01:55) – How is GPT-5.2 better: what has been improved (09:15) – What still needs work: speed and writing quality (10:45) – Closing thoughts 🔗 Links & Resources Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀 🤝 We’re Social Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast. Jack Houghton LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/  TikTok - @jackschats  Mindset Ai Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B  Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI  TikTok - @get.mindset.ai

    12 min
  4. Code Red: "We're At A Critical Time For ChatGPT."

    11/12/2025

    Code Red: "We're At A Critical Time For ChatGPT."

    OpenAI just declared Code Red. But here's the twist: three years ago, it was Google in crisis mode. When ChatGPT launched, Google's founders came back to pull all-nighters, teams were reassigned overnight, and it felt like the beginning of the end for Google's dominance. Now the tables have turned. In this episode of In The Loop, we explore why OpenAI faces the a code-red crisis—talent drain, user attrition, a $27 billion funding gap, and desperate product pivots—while Google is leading with an 87-92% chance of having the top model by year's end, while Market leadership never lasts forever. The question is: can OpenAI turn it around? ⏭️ Episode Highlights (01:15) – Code Red at OpenAI and what it really means (05:30) – What does this tell us about OpenAI's strategy? (06:25) – The financial pressures crushing OpenAI's business model (09:40) – User feedback and the over-refusal problem (10:50) – The switching problem: why developers are choosing Claude (12:40) – How Google and Anthropic are winning the competition (14:10) – The talent drain hitting OpenAI (15:00) – Four things to watch for in the AI market (16:50) – Closing thoughts on market leadership and comebacks 🔗 Links & Resources Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀 🤝 We’re Social Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast. Jack Houghton LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/  TikTok - @jackschats  Mindset Ai Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B  Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI  TikTok - @get.mindset.ai

    18 min
  5. How To Decide What To Automate With AI For Your Team & Customers

    03/12/2025

    How To Decide What To Automate With AI For Your Team & Customers

    Every week, new AI features and automations appear, but the real question isn't whether you can automate something—it's whether you should. In this episode of In The Loop, I break down a framework—from the Department of Product Substack—to help you decide where to start with AI automation in your product.  We’ll cover the concept of verifiability, how to score opportunities across safety, volume, and ease of validation, and why most AI features should be assistants, not full autopilots. By the end, you'll have a practical approach to evaluating AI opportunities and avoiding the mistakes that kill adoption before it starts. ⏭️ Episode Highlights (01:30) – Why automation is AI's biggest superpower right now (04:15) – The Verifiability Principle: Can you tell if it worked? (07:00) – Product vs. process: Deciding what to automate for users vs. teams (09:15) – The three-dimensional framework: Safety, volume, and verifiability (12:35) – Three reasons AI automation fails and how to design around them (13:50) – Closing thoughts: Why doing nothing is no longer an option 🔗 Links & Resources Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀 🤝 We’re Social Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast. Jack Houghton LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/  TikTok - @jackschats  Mindset Ai Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B  Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI  TikTok - @get.mindset.ai

    15 min
  6. Two Insane AI Models By Google That Broke The Internet

    27/11/2025

    Two Insane AI Models By Google That Broke The Internet

    Google’s just dropped two new AI models that broke the internet—and got Sam Altman worried. Gemini 3 Pro and Nana Banana Pro hit number one on the app store and generated hundreds of millions of images in days. In this episode of In The Loop, I'm breaking down the capabilities that set these models apart: from perfect multilingual text generation to 24-hour autonomous coding sessions. If you've been waiting for AI assistants and image generation to finally feel useful in your everyday work, this might just be it. ⏭️ Episode Highlights (01:15) – Gemini 3 Pro and Nana Banana Pro hit different (03:10) – Nano Banana nails multilingual text (06:08) – Maintaining image identity—blending up to 14 images (07:12) – Real-time data grounding with live information from Google Search (08:50) – Gemini 3 Pro's claim of 24+ hours of autonomous work (11:35) – Complex screenshot interaction and better UI navigation (13:16) – Multiple solution approaches (15:25) – Closing thoughts: what's changed and why Sam Altman should be worried 🔗 Links & Resources Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀 🤝 We’re Social Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast. Jack Houghton LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/  TikTok - @jackschats  Mindset Ai Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B  Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI  TikTok - @get.mindset.ai

    19 min
  7. Five Things GPT-5.1 Does Better—Vibes Over Benchmarks

    19/11/2025

    Five Things GPT-5.1 Does Better—Vibes Over Benchmarks

    OpenAI just released GPT 5.1—but this time, there are no benchmark charts, no performance graphs, and no technical metrics. Instead, they're selling something much harder to measure: vibes. In this episode of In The Loop, I break down the five key improvements in GPT 5.1 and what this dramatic shift from technical benchmarks to user experience tells us about where AI is heading. From better instruction following to warmer personality (at the cost of safety regressions), OpenAI is making bold choices to compete with Claude's rising market dominance. ⏭️ Episode Highlights (01:30) – GPT-5.1 improvement #1: Better instruction following (02:25) – GPT-5.1 improvement #2: Increased decisiveness (04:15) – GPT-5.1 improvement #3: Enhanced planning (04:53) – GPT-5.1 improvement #4: Writing improvements (08:00) – GPT-5.1 improvement #5: Warmer personality (10:20) – Conclusion: Why vibes now matter as much as benchmarks 🔗 Links & Resources Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀 🤝 We’re Social Stay in the loop—even when you’re not listening to this podcast. Jack Houghton LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-houghton1/  TikTok - @jackschats  Mindset Ai Mindset AI website - https://bit.ly/40lJr6B  Newsletter - https://bit.ly/ITLnewsletter  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-ai/  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GetMindsetAI  TikTok - @get.mindset.ai

    11 min

About

Stay in the loop with the biggest stories in AI—without the noise and nonsense. Each week, Jack Houghton (CPO at Mindset AI) unpacks the latest news, research, and product trends shaping the future of artificial intelligence. From OpenAI breakthroughs to unicorn startups, In The Loop delivers sharp, less than 20-minute episodes packed with insights for product leaders, engineers, and AI-curious innovators. Subscribe to get smarter about AI, every week. Don't forget to rate and share the show with other AI enthusiasts. Check out Mindset AI: https://bit.ly/40lJr6B