Dr. Jeff Wurfel

Writing

Essays

On building and using AI with judgment — the 95% problem, matching the tool to the job, and the distance between what AI promises and what it delivers. The thinking behind topfiveaitech.com.

  • The Last One Percent Is the Whole Job

    A demo is the best two minutes of a hundred hours, and your own working proof of concept is a trailer too, because you were the error-catcher. Why the last one percent is the whole job, and how to climb it in rungs.

  • Colearning

    Everyone is waiting for AI that learns you. A carry-forward doc is the version you can build today: the shared memory between you and the model, readable, correctable, and portable to whatever tool comes next.

  • The Step Before the Step

    The most useful habit with these tools is backing up one step: ask the AI what you should be asking before you ask for the thing. The best prompt is often the one you erase.

  • The Excuses Used to Be True

    The excuses for living with broken things — not technical, not worth the time, wait for IT — were accurate pricing for decades. The price changed. The reflex didn’t.

  • Being the Friction

    The hard part was never knowing the right questions to ask before an AI build. It’s getting a room that was promised easy to run them anyway — and still getting invited back. Three moves, and one for whoever runs the room.

  • Validator, Not Bottleneck

    Two ways to be the human in the loop: validator or bottleneck. Bottlenecks review everything, feel essential, and get designed around. Validators make their judgment legible — and get handed the next loop.

  • Why 95% of AI Projects Fail (and How to Land in the 5%)

    MIT found 95% of enterprise AI projects deliver no value — and winners ran the same models as losers. The failure isn’t the tech; it’s the first conversation — and that’s the part you can fix.