We Taught People to Speak Software
Software stopped requiring translators. The interface changed; the system of record did not.
One idea per spread. One move you can make this week.
Every spread pairs an illustration with a plain-English lesson and an "AI power move": one concrete decision a leader can put to work this week.
1 · The Idea to Keep A visual metaphor and one plain-English sentence worth repeating in the room.
2 · The Executive Question The single question to ask your team before funding—or stopping—a workflow.
3 · The AI Power Move One small, bounded step you can run this week and actually measure.
The Opportunity Expired While We Were Meeting
Count the hours between "the data is in" and "we can decide." That gap is the cost.
"Microsoft Word Is Dangerous"
Familiar risk feels smaller than new risk. Feeling is not measurement.
Shadow AI
Your people already use AI. Give them an approved route that's easier than the unapproved one.
Pilot Purgatory
A pilot should end in a decision, not another pilot.
Give the Agent a Job Description
An agent without written boundaries is not autonomous. It is unsupervised.
Who it's for
- Executives and managers who keep hearing "AI" and want the plain-English version
- Leaders deciding which AI pilots to fund, and which to stop
- Security, IT and compliance teams who want to say "yes, safely" instead of "no"
What you'll be able to do
- Spot where your people still translate intent into keystrokes
- Compare the risk of AI against the risk of how you work today
- Pick one real workflow, set its boundaries, and measure the whole result
Aksel Chernitzky
Aksel's path has taken him from Boston University's School of Management to the wholesale mortgage desk, through the secondary markets, and onto the factory floor. Along the way, he designed lending systems to expand access to homeownership, co-founded a cross-border manufacturing business, and built dozens of projects.
Across industries, he keeps returning to the same question:
Since the early days of ChatGPT, Aksel has pursued that question through hands-on experimentation with AI: what happens when people can describe what they want to accomplish, and technology helps them do it. He brings an operator's experience, a systems designer's curiosity, and a builder's willingness to test what comes next.
Start with the book. Then go off the record.
The Field Guide is the complete playbook. Off the Record is the conversation after the meeting, for readers who want more: 10 new bonus spreads and 36 red-stamp margin notes, as a PDF and narrated audio. All new material, none of it repeated from the book.
The Book · On Amazon Now
The Field Guide
The complete playbook · 36 spreads, 36 power moves. Short enough that your CEO, CIO, and CISO will actually read it before the roadmap review.
- 36 full-color illustrated spreads (80 pages), each with one plain-English lesson and one concrete AI power move
- Built for real decisions: shadow AI, pilot purgatory, vendor risk, and how to give an agent a job description
- Available on Amazon in Kindle eBook (included with Kindle+), full-color paperback, and hardcover
Off the Record · Too Hot for the Boardroom
WHAT THE AI? Off the Record
The reader's companion · Direct from the author · Too hot for the boardroom. Said anyway. What gets said after the vendor leaves the room.
- 10 new bonus spreads on the AI absurdities every office now recognizes ("Three API Calls in a Trench Coat", "Bullet-Point Ping-Pong", "Seven Bots and Two Humans")
- 36 red-stamp margin notes, one per spread of the book: the line you'd only say to a peer, off the record
- Narrated audio edition of all 10 bonus spreads and 36 margin notes (MP3 + M4A), plus the full AI Vendor Due-Diligence Scorecard, expanded from the free 5-question version
SNEAK PEEK · OFF THE RECORD
Three Bonus Spreads From Off the Record
Three of the 10 bonus scenarios, with the red-stamp line every leader recognizes from their own Tuesday. Satire, mostly.
Bonus Spread · Vendor Wrapper
"Three API Calls in a Trench Coat"
The vendor pitch deck promised a "proprietary autonomous multi-agent reasoning engine." Under the hood, it's a system prompt, a regex, and three foundation-model API calls duct-taped together at a very generous markup.
Red-Stamp Margin Note "Before signing a six-figure annual contract, ask what survives if the foundation model vendor ships that exact feature natively next Tuesday."
Bonus Spread · Productivity Theatre
"Bullet-Point Ping-Pong"
A manager types 3 rough bullet points and tells AI to "make it a polished 5-paragraph email." Five seconds later, the recipient clicks "summarize this email into 3 bullet points."
Red-Stamp Margin Note "You didn't automate communication. You hired a GPU middleman to inflate and deflate the same three sentences."
Bonus Spread · Calendar Absurdity
"Seven Bots and Two Humans"
Nine tiles join the 9:00 AM status call. Seven are AI transcription bots sent by people who double-booked themselves. The two humans spend 30 minutes talking to the bots, generating a summary nobody reads.
Red-Stamp Margin Note "If an AI notetaker bot can attend a meeting in your place and nothing in the business breaks, the meeting shouldn't exist."
Work with Aksel · 1:1 Coaching & Team Briefings
Bring the book into the room
Before your next AI roadmap, board briefing, or vendor decision, get everyone speaking the same plain English.
Single 1:1 · 60–90 Min
1:1 Executive Decision Session
One focused Zoom call with Aksel. Bring a stalled AI pilot, a six-figure vendor pitch, or a workflow question; leave with a clear decision and written boundaries your team can act on.
Weekly 1:1 · Advisory
Weekly Executive AI Advisory
A weekly 1:1 Zoom call as your independent AI sounding board: pressure-test vendor claims, review what your team is proposing, and keep decisions sharp. Your team builds. Aksel advises.
Keynotes & Offsites · 60–90 Min
Team Briefings
Bulk hardcover or paperback copies for your C-suite, board, or offsite, plus a live 60–90 minute briefing built around the book's spreads.