Welcome to AI Builders
A field journal for ops and tech pros building real-world AI systems.
When I first started building with LLMs, it felt bewildering.
There’s a deluge of AI content out there, but almost none of it addressed my core question:
How do I build reliable AI systems that actually work in production?
Most content falls into one of three buckets:
Deeply technical newsletters for AI PhDs—fascinating, but often a degree or two removed from the problems I face.
AI news round-ups—helpful for staying current, but not much use when architecting real systems.
AI hype-posting—those viral org charts of 27 agents saving 1,000 hours a week…with no receipts.
I’m here for something else:
The hard, gritty, and often frustrating work of designing, testing, and scaling internal AI systems—the kind that actually work day-to-day, not just in demos.
What you’ll find here
Insights and observations from working day-to-day building AI systems
Design patterns to improve scalability and reliability
Teardowns of effective use cases and how they were built
Honest reflections on what’s working, what’s not, and why
The format is deliberately tactical and practical.
I’m not building a content engine to monetize your attention. I just want a place to document what I’m learning and hopefully make it useful for others in the same shoes.
Over time, I may include some longer-form pieces or interviews with folks who have valuable knowledge to share.
But most of the content here will akin to informal notes from the field—dog-eared and smudged, but hopefully valuable.
Want to contribute?
I also want to capture the knowledge of other people doing this work.
If you are building production systems for internal use and have insights or valuable use cases to share, please consider a guest post submission.
I’m working on getting a submission page set up, but in the meantime feel free to email me and pitch an idea: justin at ai bulders dot blog.
About Me
I’ve spent nearly 15 years as a business system and automation architect, half in enterprise consulting, half leading RevOps for high-growth SaaS. The through-line: I’ve always been responsible for building systems that work and deliver real impact.
