Avant Concepts Blog https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/ Notes on AI, LLMs, agents and shipping software, plus plain-English posts on AI for small businesses, from Avant Concepts. en-us Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT What an AI Front Desk Actually Does All Day https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/what-an-ai-front-desk-actually-does/ https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/what-an-ai-front-desk-actually-does/ Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ben Subercaseaux Small Business A plain-English walkthrough of one day with an AI front desk — what it handles on its own, what it hands to you, and what changes for a small service business. What the Hugging Face Agent Breach Actually Teaches Engineering Teams https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/what-the-huggingface-agent-breach-teaches/ https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/what-the-huggingface-agent-breach-teaches/ Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ben Subercaseaux Engineering OpenAI's Hugging Face breach postmortem names four agent failure modes. Here's what they mean for teams shipping agents in production, plus a concrete control pattern. Agent Evals Stopped Grading Answers and Started Grading Trajectories https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/agent-evals-trajectory-shift/ https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/agent-evals-trajectory-shift/ Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ben Subercaseaux Engineering In 2026 the agent-eval stack moved from single-output scoring to trajectory replay, tool-supply-chain checks, and policy-driven tests — here's what changed and why. Context Rot Is the Real Reason Your Agents Fail in Production https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/context-rot-production-ai-agents/ https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/context-rot-production-ai-agents/ Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ben Subercaseaux Engineering New research and production data show bigger context windows don't fix agent failures. Here's what's replacing naive context stuffing in 2026. MCP's Stateless Rewrite Changes How You Deploy Every Tool Server https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/mcp-stateless-spec-rewrite/ https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/mcp-stateless-spec-rewrite/ Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ben Subercaseaux Engineering MCP 2026-07-28 drops sessions, adds routable headers, cacheable lists, and a Tasks extension — here's what breaks, what gets easier, and who owns security now. You Can't Hire a Receptionist Right Now, and AI Knows It https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/ai-fills-the-hiring-gap/ https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/ai-fills-the-hiring-gap/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ben Subercaseaux Small Business Labor is tight, hiring is slow, and small businesses already using AI report shorter days and more revenue. Here's what the new data means for owners. The Missed Call and the Midnight Invoice Are the Same Problem https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/missed-calls-and-midnight-invoices/ https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/missed-calls-and-midnight-invoices/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ben Subercaseaux Small Business New 2026 data shows what slow callbacks and after-hours paperwork actually cost local service businesses, and where automation pays off first. Most Small Businesses Use AI Now, But Not Where It Counts https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/small-business-ai-payoff-gap/ https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/small-business-ai-payoff-gap/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ben Subercaseaux Small Business Small business AI adoption is near-universal now, but payoff isn't. Here's where local businesses are actually seeing AI turn into revenue. Case Study: An AI Portfolio Manager That Has to Show Its Work https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/ai-portfolio-manager-case-study/ https://www.avant-concepts.com/blog/ai-portfolio-manager-case-study/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ben Subercaseaux Engineering We gave an LLM agent a paper-trading mandate across six venues. The lessons on tool design, guardrails, and feedback loops apply to every production agent we build.