Brian Pollack
Fully Staffed Is Not Fully Covered
Nerds aren’t interchangeable. Why even strong IT teams sometimes need specialized expertise in accessibility, security, performance, and other high-risk areas.
Proto Typing
Software Ownership
The Cost of Owning Software
by Brian Pollack Clients rarely misunderstand the cost of building software. That part is simple: the client asks for software with a goal, we build it, the transaction is complete. But that’s only the first step. Once software exists, someone has to own it. Below are those ownership costs,
AI Lab
You Know AI Matters. But Where Does It Actually Pay Off?
by Brian Pollack After 30 years of building software for healthcare, telecom, and many enterprise companies, I've pointed Protovate at one thing: AI software development. Custom software with AI doing the actual work inside it. Not chatbots. The unglamorous stuff. Recently we automated customer service requests and followup
AI
It’s 2026, Not 2016
Technical interviews still test experienced developers on memory and syntax, even as real-world development increasingly depends on judgment, problem-solving, and intelligent use of modern tools. Prateek Sharma asks whether it’s time for the interview process to catch up.
White Paper
How to Become an AI Engineer
The roadmap I actually walked. Sixteen years of shipping software, two years of shipping AI, and everything that broke in front of real users along the way. 7 stages 90-day plan No PhD required AI engineering is not ML Stop treating it like a chatbot Where the intelligence belongs Your
White Paper
We stopped paying per token and put the models on our own machine
One workstation, a stack of open models from Hugging Face, a few hundred lines of Python, and an ngrok tunnel. Here is how Protovate builds and tests AI apps before a single API bill arrives. GPU memory32 GBenough for 7B–13B System RAM128 GBoffload headroom Models pulledText + imageopen weights Shared
AI
The Spreadsheet Everyone Was Afraid to Touch
A temporary spreadsheet built to save time became a business-critical system that outlived its creator. A funny story about institutional knowledge hiding in plain sight.
AI
Version Control for Normal Humans
Why do so many shared drives contain files named FINAL_v2_REAL_THISONE.xlsx? It isn't bad file naming. It's how people adapt when software doesn't match the way work actually gets done.
AI
The Vacation Test
A 35-day vacation, an AI clone, and the real lesson about knowledge capture. AI doesn't replace experience. It depends on it.
AI
The New Work Relationship
We spend years teaching computers to communicate like people. Then we accidentally start treating them like coworkers. Why the relationship change has more to do with us than AI.
AI
Typewriters. ATMs. AI?
What do the printing press, the typewriter, the ATM, and AI have in common? Every one sparked predictions of widespread job losses. The reality was far more interesting.
AI
The Error Moved To The Corner Office
Automation can eliminate some mistakes, but it doesn't eliminate responsibility. Often the errors just move somewhere harder to see - and more expensive to fix.