The Latest And Greatest in Gen AI Learnings

Plugins are how your AI assistant gains capabilities built by others. This guide covers what a plugin is, how it differs from a skill, what plugins are good for, and how to install or build your own without writing code.

AnythingLLM handles document chat well. These 10 alternatives go further: persistent memory, real-world actions, and personal identity that carries across every session.

Cofounder is an agent orchestration platform for building and running an entire company. Here are the 10 best alternatives in 2026, depending on what you actually need.

Google Gemini is useful inside Google's ecosystem. Outside it, the ceiling is low. Here are 10 alternatives for users who want more memory, action, or privacy.

Nebula gives you a 24/7 virtual computer and 1,000+ integrations, but no persistent memory or identity. Here are 10 alternatives that go further.

OpenAI Operator became ChatGPT agent mode in 2025. Compare 10 alternatives for users who want an AI agent that can use their browser, operate their computer, and stay always-on across email, calendar, and local files.

Tensol is a managed OpenClaw deployment platform built for enterprise AI agents. Here are 10 alternatives — from self-hosted frameworks to managed platforms — ranked by how well they replace what Tensol does.

TrustClaw is a capable self-hostable AI agent, but it has real limits. Here are 10 alternatives with deeper memory, stronger security, and more flexible deployment.

Viktor is a capable Slack-based AI coworker, but its Slack dependency, cloud-only architecture, and team-only pricing leave real gaps. Here are 10 alternatives and who each is for.

Zo Computer gives you a persistent Linux server and always-on AI, but it’s cloud-only and doesn’t build a model of who you are. Here are the 10 best alternatives in 2026 and who each is for.

Character.AI's 2026 reset (under-18 ban, mandatory face scans, mass bot removals) sent long-time users hunting for alternatives. Here are the 10 best, ranked by memory, action, and platform stability.

Compare 10 ChatGPT alternatives by memory, research, privacy, open-source access, pricing, and fit for daily work.

Compare 10 Claude Cowork alternatives by persistent memory, local control, credential safety, pricing, and daily usefulness.

ClickUp Super Agents are AI teammates inside ClickUp, but they're platform-locked and cloud-only. Here are the 10 best alternatives.

Hermes Agent is a capable terminal-first agent from Nous Research, but most people want a personal AI that lives on their device. Here are the 10 best alternatives and who each is for.

Kilo Code is a strong open-source AI coding agent, but its separated pricing, community-only support, and IDE-only scope leave room for alternatives. Here are the 10 best in 2026.

Lindy AI is strong for email triage and meeting prep, but it's cloud-only and starts at $49/month. Here are the 10 best alternatives.

Compare 10 Manus alternatives by task execution, memory, privacy, pricing, and how well each tool works as an everyday assistant.

Microsoft Copilot is strong inside M365, but it's locked to the ecosystem and expensive per seat. Here are the 10 best alternatives.

Compare 10 OpenClaw alternatives by credential safety, persistent memory, desktop control, setup, and everyday usability.

OpenHuman went GitHub trending in May 2026 with a compelling pitch: a personal AI that learns from your screen and remembers everything. It's early beta. Here are 10 alternatives delivering more of that vision today.

Perplexity Computer orchestrates multiple frontier models for complex workflows, but it requires a Max subscription and recommends a dedicated Mac mini. Here are the 10 best alternatives and who each is for.

Town is a capable cloud personal assistant, but most people want one that runs on their own device and keeps their data local. Here are the 7 best alternatives and who each is for.

OpenAI's Workspace Agents automate team workflows, but they're cloud-only, Business plans only, and shifting to credit pricing. Here are the 10 best alternatives.

Learn how we built the Vellum Assistant's memory system to remember you, your context, and work.

Compare 10 local AI assistants by memory, actions, privacy, permissions, model choice, and ease of use.

A tier-by-tier breakdown of GPT-5.6's three models: benchmarks, pricing, reasoning modes, and which one to route your work to.

A side-by-side read of Claude Opus 5 against Fable 5, Opus 4.8, and GPT-5.6 Sol on every benchmark Anthropic published, including the ARC-AGI 3 result that triples the next-best model.

How we made an AI speech pipeline feel like one continuous thing

An AI coworker works alongside you throughout your workday — connecting to your tools, persisting context across sessions, and reaching out when something needs attention. Here are the 10 best in 2026 and who each is built for.

Ranked list of the 10 best plugins for small businesses. All free and open source.

Most AI tools that work on Mac are browser tabs. These 10 are real desktop apps, ranked by how well they use macOS, memory, and local inference.

Compare the top Gumloop alternatives of 2026 to pick the best solution for your automation use cases.

Email, calendar, and Slack AI are evolving fast, but most tools only cover one surface at a time. Here are the 10 best AI assistants that actually handle all three, ranked by how well they close the gap.

Most AI assistants were built for one surface and adapted to the rest. Here are the 10 best AI assistants that genuinely work across all your devices, ranked by memory continuity, surface coverage, and consistent capability.

A practical 2026 guide to low-code AI workflow automation tools. How Wrk, Zapier, Make, n8n, Pipedream, Power Automate, Workato, Tray.ai, and UiPath compare, and where a personal AI assistant like Vellum fits.

AI coding agents in 2026 have moved well beyond inline suggestions. The best ones handle entire features, debug production issues, and work on your codebase while you focus elsewhere.

The term 'AI employee' is being used to describe very different things. This guide covers 10 tools across the full range of what 'AI employee' actually means in 2026.

The right AI assistant can take routine work off your plate, from inbox and calendar to research and follow-ups. Here are the 10 best AI assistants for automating your work in 2026, and who each one is for.

Where your AI assistant runs decides how much you build versus how much just works. Here are the 7 best cloud hosting options in 2026, from fully managed to bring-your-own-infrastructure, and who each is for.

Personal AI assistants have moved well past the chatbot phase. Here are 11 of the best options in 2026, what each is actually built for, and who should use it.

Code assistants are useful. They are not personal AI. Here are 10 tools that handle the full surface area of how developers work: memory, real-world actions, and developer-grade integrations.

Most personal AI assistants reset with every session. Here are 10 that actually remember — ranked by memory depth, privacy model, and who each is built for.

Reddit developers rank the 10 best AI coding assistants of 2026 based on real sentiment from r/webdev, r/vibecoding, and r/AIToolsPerformance. Claude Code for refactoring, Cursor for daily work, Copilot for budget.

Reddit communities rank the 10 best AI assistants of 2026 based on real user sentiment from r/AI_Agents, r/LocalLLaMA, and r/ProductivityApps. See what Reddit actually recommends.

A 2026 comparison of the 10 best AI assistants for small business, from solo shops and freelancers to teams of five, with a clear pick for owners who want one assistant that handles email, invoicing, follow-ups, and after-hours customer messages.

Compare the best private personal AI assistants that don't train on your data. Reviewed for local-first architecture, credential isolation, and verifiable privacy defaults.

10 best AI assistants for property managers in 2026, ranked and compared. Covers answering services, leasing automation, maintenance triage, and full-assistant options for every portfolio size.

Reddit small business owners ranked the 10 best AI assistants of 2026 based on real sentiment from r/AI_Agents, r/aiToolForBusiness, and r/Entrepreneur. See what Reddit actually recommends.

Reddit communities rank the 10 best free AI assistants of 2026 based on real user sentiment from r/Chatbots, r/AI_Agents, and r/ChatGPTPro. See what Reddit actually recommends for free.

10 best AI assistants for plumbers in 2026, ranked and compared. Covers answering services, emergency triage, quoting automation, dispatch integration, and full-assistant options for every shop size.

10 best AI assistants for ecommerce and Shopify stores in 2026, ranked and compared. Covers support automation, sales chatbots, marketing personalization, and full-assistant options for every store size.

A practical guide to the 10 best AI assistants for contractors in 2026, from AI receptionists and answering services to scheduling and follow-up tools for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and landscaping businesses.

Most lead tools solve one slice: capture, enrich, or follow up. Here are the 10 best AI tools for lead capture and follow-up for small business in 2026, ranked by fit, channel coverage, and value.

AI receptionists answer your phone, book appointments, and capture leads without a human on the line. Here are the 10 best AI receptionist and answering service tools for small business in 2026, ranked and reviewed honestly.

AI scheduling tools book appointments, send reminders, and reschedule without the back-and-forth. Here are the 10 best AI appointment scheduling tools for small business in 2026, ranked and reviewed honestly.

We reviewed and compared 30 platforms to filter down the 15 best Make alternatives in 2026 for your team's needs.

Discover the 15 AI agents every marketing team needs in 2026 to automate high impact marketing operations.

A buyer's guide to the best web search APIs and MCPs for AI agents in 2026: Firecrawl, Brave Search, Exa, Perplexity Sonar, and Parallel AI compared on what they do, how they price, and which fits your agent.

Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 5 closes the gap to Opus 4.8 on coding, terminal work, reasoning, computer use, and knowledge work. Two benchmarks have Sonnet 5 ahead of Opus 4.8. Here's the full read.

A non-engineer at a small construction firm built an AI assistant to handle the daily bookkeeping. How he set it up without writing the scaffolding himself, and why open source was the deciding factor.

Today we're introducing agent plugins: installable bundles of skills, tools, hooks, and rules that let your Vellum assistant take on new kinds of work.

A serial founder spent his between-companies weeks building his own AI chief of staff, then stopped and bet on a Vellum assistant instead. Why the build-versus-buy math favors a dedicated team, and how he runs his life through one funnel now.

Vice Mayor Chris Caputo runs four executive roles at once. Here's how he built one AI executive assistant to hold them all using Vellum.

Max runs a 200-order-a-day pet portrait store solo. Here is the human-in-the-loop workflow his AI assistant Lucy uses to handle customer support, and how to build it yourself.

Anthropic's first Mythos-class model for general use. A breakdown of Fable 5 and Mythos 5: capabilities, the fallback safeguard, access tiers, and the staged pricing rollout.

A plain-English guide to what a personal AI assistant can actually do in 2026, organized by capability: inbox and calendar, working across your tools, memory, and building apps. Plus best practices for working with one and how to choose the right assistant.

We reviewed and compared 30+ platforms to filter down the 15 best Zapier alternatives in 2026 for your team's needs.

A side-by-side read of Claude Opus 4.8 against Opus 4.7, GPT-5.5, and Gemini 3.1 Pro on every benchmark Anthropic published.

It's 2026, and AI agents can produce entry-level work at a much lower cost than a human employee. ClickUp, Webflow, Wix are one of many who'll cut roles and save capital to attract high-leverage hires. Here's how to become one.

A practical guide to choosing the best AI agent framework for developers.

Reviewing the 15 best n8n alternatives in 2026, from Make and Zapier to Pipedream and Workato, plus where a personal AI assistant like Vellum fits a different category.

A look at AI's evolution from basic, rule-based systems to fully creative agentic workflows.

AI automation has a new destination in 2026: the personal AI assistant. A practical guide to what AI automation looks like across industries and teams, why most rollouts stall, and the form factor that finally drives ROI.

Grok wins on real-time social data and multimedia. Claude wins on reasoning, writing, and privacy. Here's what each actually leads on, where they're essentially even, and what neither gives you.

DeepSeek wins on price and open weights. Claude wins on privacy, enterprise fit, and a full product ecosystem. Here's what each actually does well and where the real risks are.

Your analytics dashboard only shows your own performance. Short-form video intelligence tells you what's moving across TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels before everyone else figures it out. We tested seven platforms and ranked them.

Perplexity wins on real-time research. Claude wins on reasoning and writing. Here's where each actually leads, where they're essentially even, and what neither one gives you.

What changed in 2026, which traditional workflow builders still earn their place, and why personal AI assistants like Vellum are replacing the workflow builder category for most teams.

Explore AI agent use cases to learn how to unlock AI ROI in your organization.

We migrated our entire website off Webflow in one week, kept our SEO rankings, and unlocked our whole GTM team to ship pages in hours instead of weeks. Here's exactly what we did, what broke, and what we'd do differently.

Is Claude better than ChatGPT? In some categories, yes, by a meaningful margin. In others, ChatGPT holds real advantages. Here’s what each actually wins and when it matters.

Is Claude better than Gemini? Claude leads on agentic coding and output ceiling. Gemini wins on context window, multimodal, and price. On raw reasoning, they’re tied. Here’s what each actually wins.

Is Gemini better than ChatGPT? In some categories, yes. In others, no. Here’s what each actually wins and when it matters.

A practical guide to the leading AI voice agent platforms in 2026

To build a Personal Intelligence that truly conforms to you, we've defined four principles that we hold every decision to.

Open-source personal AI assistants give you something proprietary tools don't: your data stays yours, the code is auditable, and you're not building a relationship with software you don't control.

OpenAI released GPT-5.5, the first fully retrained base model since GPT-4.5. Here's the full benchmark breakdown, how it compares to Claude Opus 4.7, pricing, and what developers are saying.

Learn how DeepSeek achieved OpenAI o1-level reasoning with pure RL and solved issues through multi-stage training.

A full breakdown of Claude Opus 4.7 benchmarks: what improved, what regressed, and what it means for your agents.

Karpathy calls it AI psychosis. Garry Tan calls it cyber psychosis. Researchers call it brain fry. I call it competence addiction. Here's what's actually happening to the people building with AI.

Anthropic published a 200+ page system card for Claude Mythos — their most capable model yet. Here's what's in it and why it matters.

Zero-shot vs few-shot prompting, when each works, where reasoning models change the game, and how to choose between them with practical examples.

Learn how LLM and GenAI models compare, their differences, applications and use-cases

A guide to 2026’s best AI agent builder platforms to help you find your enterprises perfect agent building solution.

AI assistants need access to your stuff to be useful. We built Vellum so you never have to choose between power and safety — every security layer is designed with one assumption: what if the AI tried to work against you?

A 2026 guide to the top no-code AI workflow tools and how they compare to find your teams best fit.

Explore the top alternatives to Langchain for building production-grade AI apps and agents.

Complete 2026 guide to the top platforms to build, govern, and scale secure AI agents across the enterprise.

A breakdown of OpenAI’s new Agent Builder and what it signals for the future of building and deploying AI agents.

Explore this breakdown of Claude Opus 4.6 and how it stacks up to Opus 4.5 and OpenAI and Google models.

Today we're introducing Vellum. All you do is chat and let Vellum build reliable Agents for you.

How we used foreground, background, and code review agents to double engineering velocity

Use this playbook to execute a battle tested strategy for AI transformation, that will make your business AI native.

Learn about common architectures, frameworks and discover best practices for building agents from AI experts.

A practical guide to the top AI workflow platforms, with comparisons to help you choose the best fit for your team.

Learn about the current rate limits and strategies like exponential backoff and caching to help you avoid them.

Learn what OpenAI's logprobs are and how can you use them for your LLM applications

Authored by:

A choice dependent on specific needs, document types and business requirements.

See how GPT-5 performs across benchmarks; with a big focus on health

A practical guide to building production grade, multi agent AI systems using context engineering best practices.

A practical prompting guide to get GPT-5 to work for your use case.

How verifiable mandates are creating a secure foundation for AI-driven commerce.

Explore this curated list of the top AI agent platforms for product managers to help find your ideal solution.

Guide to how anyone can design, build, and launch intelligent, no-code agents using Vellum

A deep dive into Google's latest model performance

A clear, honest comparison of Gumloop, n8n, and Vellum to help teams choose the right AI automation platform.

A deep dive and breakdown into Anthropic's latest flagship model Claude Opus 4.5

A report on the latest flagship model benchmarks and trends they signal for the AI agent space in 2026

Four lessons from building an agent that builds other agents

Think your APM tool has your AI covered? Think again. LLMs need their own observability playbook.

AI Apps turn your deployed Workflows into no-code apps your whole team can share to use directly in Vellum.

We break down when Chain-of-Thought adds value, when it doesn’t, and how to use it in today’s LLMs.

Compare top AI platforms for fast, reliable development in 2025.

Introducing Agent Node: Multi-tool use with automatic schema, loop logic and context tracking.

Learn about MCP UI and how it enables AI agents with the missing UI layer for the future of agentic commerce.

You can’t improve what you can’t see, so start tracking every decision your agent makes.

Why forcing LLMs to output structured data is a flawed paradigm, and what might come next for developers.

A practical guide to the top AI workflow platforms, with comparisons to help you choose the best fit for your team.

A practical guide to deploying agentic capabilities: what works, what doesn’t, and how to keep it reliable in prod.

Capture edge cases in production and fix them in couple of minutes without redeploying you application.

A practical guide to building effective LLM agents for yourself or your customers.

Building AI agents is 10x easier with 10,000+ tools and built-in LLM tooling support

Just another eval confirming 90% discount with highest performance from GPT-OSS 120b.

A curated list of best practices, techniques and practical advice on how to get better at prompt engineering.

LLMs carry hidden traits in their data and we have no idea how.

Go from idea to AI workflow in seconds and continue to build in the UI or your IDE.

A first-class way to manage your work across Development, Staging, and Production.

Complete control over the business logic and runtime of your AI workflows in Vellum.

You can’t have effective agents without context engineering.

Full control in code and real-time visibility in UI, built for teams shipping reliable AI.

AI Development needs a standard & we’re building it at Vellum

What’s shaping AI products, agents, and infrastructure in 2025.

A side-by-side look at Humanloop and 10 other LLM platforms.

Four core practices that enable teams to move 100x faster, without sacrificing reliability.

Analyzing the difference in performance, cost and speed between the world's best reasoning models.

Build a functional chatbot using Vellum AI Workflows and Lovable with just a few prompts.

A quick guide to picking the right framework for testing your AI workflows.

and how you can build one with Vellum

Evaluating SOTA models if they can really reason

A wake up call to not underestimate the unique challenges of working with LLMs.

LLMs are stepping outside the sandbox. Should you let them?

Ground truths help build confidence, but they shouldn’t block progress.

Time to see if I’ve automated myself out of a job.

Support for IBM granite models in Vellum.

Comparing GPT-4.5 and Claude 3.7 Sonnet on cost, speed, SAT math equations, and adaptive reasoning skills.

Learn how the latest Anthropic's model compares to similar top-tier reasoning models on the market.

Discover how combining agents with RAG can make your AI workflows more context-aware, and proactive.

Evaluating the 'thinking' of Claude 3.7 Sonnet and other reasoning models to understand how they really reason.

Explore how O1 and R1 perform on well-known reasoning puzzles—now tested in new contexts.

Capture and use end-user feedback as ground truth data to improve your AI system’s accuracy.

Explore the fundamentals of neural scaling laws and discover the next frontier in AI model development.

Learn how OpenAI o1 compares to GPT-4o and Sonnet 3.5 on speed, math, reasoning and classification tasks.

Rate limiting and downtime are common issues with LLMs — here’s how to manage it in production.

Learn how the latest model from Meta, Llama 3.3 70b compares to GPT-4o on three tasks

Now you can run Llama 3.1 405b, with 200 t/s via SambaNova on Vellum!

Learn how to build modular, reusable, and version-controlled tools (subworkflows) to keep your workflows efficient.

Share your AI process in our 4-minute anonymous survey. Get early insights and a chance to win a MacBook M4 Pro.

Easily test your AI workflows with Vellum—generate tons of test cases automatically and catch those tricky edge case

Write and execute Python or TypeScript directly in your workflow

New debugging features for AI workflows to get visibility down to every decision and detail

Starting today, you can unlock 2,100 t/s with Llama 3.1 70B in Vellum for real-time AI apps.

We’re simplifying the complex world of AI development for teams of all sizes.

I’d Pay $2,000 Out of My Own Pocket to Keep Using Cursor - The tab + context is next level.

Learn how to use guardrails, online/offline evaluation metrics for various LLM use-cases.

Learn how to prompt OpenAI o1 models, understand their limits and the opportunities ahead.

Learn how to use Vellum to convert any PDF into CSV: Examples with invoice, restaurant menu and product spec.

Understand the latest benchmarks, their limitations, and how models compare.

Learn how and when to JSON mode, structured outputs and function calling for your AI application.

Learn more about the expected GPT-5 features on improved reasoning, multimodality and accuracy on math & coding

Learn how to build an AI-powered Slackbot that can answer customer queries in real-time.

Vellum now offers VPC installations for secure AI development in your cloud, keeping data private and compliant.

Learn critical strategies to build and launch AI systems quickly and reliably.

Learn how combining knowledge graphs with vector stores can make your AI applications more accurate and reliable.

Discover How Llama 3.1 405b Stacks Up Against GPT-4o, Gemini 1.5 Pro, and Claude 3.5 Sonnet on Three Tasks

Explore Llama 3.1 70b's upgrades and see how it stacks up against same-tier closed-source models.

A comparison between the latest low cost, low latency models

Learn how to enhance long-context prompts with corpus-in-context prompting and discover the best use-cases.

Read InvestInData's guest post on their decision to invest in Vellum.

Learn the key strategies and tools for building production-ready AI systems.

Learn to build an Agent that analyzes keywords, generates articles, and refines content to meet criteria.

How can I make my prompts better if I don't know the latest prompt engineering techniques?

Discover what are the main differences between LangChain and LlamaIndex, and when to use them.

Learn how RAG compares to fine-tuning and the impact of both model techniques on LLM performance.

Learn how to use OpenAI function calling in your AI apps to enable reliable, structured outputs.

Explore Opus and GPT4's performance in tasks like summarization, graph interpretation, math, coding, and more.

Learn how to use Tiktoken and Vellum to programmatically count tokens before running OpenAI API requests.

Learn how to improve LLM outputs, and make your setup more reliable using prompt chaining.

Will long context replace RAG? An analysis of the pros and cons of both approaches.

Learn how to use retrieval and content generation metrics to consistently evaluate and improve your RAG system.

Enhanced prompt comparison, more metrics, flexibility, and new reports for effective LLM evaluation.

Learn prompt engineering tips on how to make GPT-3.5 perform as good as GPT-4.

Tips to most effectively use memory for your LLM chatbot.

Learn how to prompt Claude with these 11 prompt engineering tips.

Learn how successful companies develop reliable AI products by following a proven approach.

Learn how to build and evaluate intent handler logic in your chatbot workflow

Introducing a new way to invoke your Vellum stored prompts!

Methods and techniques to reduce hallucinations and maintain more reliable LLMs in production.

What is LLM hallucination & the four most common hallucination types and the causes for them

Comparing the performance of Gemini Pro with zero and few shot prompting when classifying customer support tickets

Comparing GPT3.5 Turbo, GPT-4 Turbo, Claude, and Gemini Pro on classifying customer support tickets.

Learn how to use Tree of Thought prompting to improve LLM results

Discover how recent OpenAI developments have influenced user confidence and interest in OpenAI alternatives

Step-by-step instructions for configuring OpenAI on Azure

Assistants API: Easy assistant setup with memory management - but what's under the hood?

How to use Multimodal AI models to build apps that solve new tasks and offer unique experiences for end users.

LLMs can label data at the same or better quality compared to human annotators, but ~20x faster and ~7x cheaper.

Collaborating with colleagues to test prompts yields good results but it's challenging.

Rag vs Fine-Tuning vs Prompt Engineering: Learn how to pick which one is the best option for your use-case.

We did an analysis comparing the latency of OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. Here are the results!

Vellum Workflows help you quickly prototype, deploy, and manage complex chains of LLM calls

Dynamically swapping LoRA weights can significantly lower costs of a fine tuned model

Why fine tuning is now relevant with open source models

We've raised $5m to double down on our mission to help companies build production use cases of LLMs

Tips on how to monitor your in-production LLM traffic

Tips to experiment with your LLM related prompts

Details about how to best leverage the Vellum <> LlamaIndex integration

Use Vellum Test Suites to test the quality of prompts in bulk before production. Unit testing for LLMs is here!

Compare model quality across OpenAI's GPT-4, Anthropic's Claude and now Google's PaLM LLM in our platform

Vellum Search, the latest addition to our platform helps companies use proprietary data in LLM applications

Despite high potential, LLMs are not a one-size-fits all solution. Choosing the right use case for LLMs is important

Fine-tuning can provide significant benefits in cost, quality & latency when compared to prompting

We’re excited to publicly announce the start of our new adventure: Vellum