Jennifer Smith

@ScribeHow just crossed $100M ARR. Today, our 90,000 enterprise customers include nearly half the Fortune 500. I shared this news with @jonfortt on @CNBC earlier today, but I still vividly remember our first deal for $7K! I’m proud of our team and grateful for our customers. The reality is, we’re just in the first inning. Most companies are still very far from the AI transformation they imagined. A lot of AI usage at work is still for personal productivity: it’s not locked into where and how an org creates its value. The models aren’t the problem. It’s that they aren’t being taught enough about the business. AI has a context problem. AI gets dropped into companies
without knowing HOW work actually gets done. That’s thousands of workflows AI can’t see. Dozens of decisions it can’t trace or recreate. AI doesn’t understand your org at all.
 Missing workflow context is now an existential problem for the enterprise. Without context, AI can’t function. It just delivers generic output, or confidently gets things wrong. For AI to actually work inside enterprises, something fundamental has to change. That’s why we’re witnessing a new layer of the enterprise stack emerge. To pull ahead companies need to map their context layer, making it legible to both humans and agents. Here's my full thinking on workflow context and why it’s the most urgent need in enterprise AI: scribe.com/library/100-mi…

@t_blom Yup, it's like putting a Nobel Laureate in your office lobby, not giving them any context, and saying “Go.”

Imagine replacing 90% of your employees with a team of geniuses who have no idea how your company operates. Total chaos. Nothing works. That’s what AI feels like today. The missing piece is extracting all the domain knowledge from people’s heads and providing that as structured context to the models.

I walked the tradeshow floor at a conference recently. And it gave me a TON of empathy for customers. Every booth: AI + bold claims AI + polished demos AI + fancy coffee They all say basically the same thing, on posters that were all printed last week. I run an AI company, and even I can’t tell you what many of these companies actually do. It’s a market full of promises but not a lot of answers. Which means enterprise leaders are returning to their offices full of questions, like: • Where should we place our bets? • What’s actually worth changing? • How do we get to ROI? That walk reminded me that it doesn’t matter if you’re building or buying, we all need a clean answer to: what will ACTUALLY WORK in the business? To anyone running AI transformation at their company right now, ignore the shiny. Start with what business problems you actually want to solve. THEN figure out how to get AI to help you solve it.

My favorite AI shift is watching people build the tools they wish existed for themselves. It’s been so fun to watch everyone at @ScribeHow become a builder. 👷 Parkes from Sales just built a 4-layer account intelligence system for himself that he demo’ed for the whole company. - Background agents research every account in his book - A morning batch generates a full summary before his first call - An interactive planner surfaces his highest-priority to-dos - And one-click triggers create account briefs, business cases, and email drafts on demand A few years ago, Parkes would have had to file a ticket and wait for another team’s help. Now, he just built it. 💪 In this “just build what you need” mindset, everyone shares their wins: in AI office hours, live demos, or Slack. It’s contagious — everyone is AI-pilled when it feels like we’re constantly building and solving problems, faster than ever before. If this is how you work — or want to work — we're hiring: scribe.com/careers?utm_so… Photo: Parkes seconds before demo-ing his build.

The “last mile” problem for AI is inside the org. We now have incredibly powerful models. But instead of witnessing full AI transformations, most orgs are discovering how much of their business still runs on invisible context held together by humans. Many orgs thought they could drop AI into their process and it would just start optimizing. But almost all “process” requires humans to be the glue — to know the real workflow (not just what’s documented), handle exceptions, interpret ambiguity, and be both a memory and coordination system. At @WebSummit Vancouver, I shared the truth hiding in plain sight: To see any real AI transformation, your org’s context layer MUST be legible to both humans and AI agents. AI struggles inside orgs where knowledge transfer is implicit instead of explicit. It needs to understand your workflows, decisions, handoffs, and exceptions. When AI doesn’t know EXACTLY how your business creates value, you can’t get close to an AI transformation. That’s the thing most orgs didn’t plan for… and now need to reckon with. (Photo with @johnkoetsier, @YayLT, @NancyZWang)

All anyone can talk about is AI transformation. But many leaders quietly wonder, “Is everyone else actually further along than we are?” I just hosted a dinner in SF with a handful of AI and transformation leaders. Here’s the 3 things that kept coming up in our conversation: (Big thank you to @loganbartlett from @Redpoint who shared what he's seeing across his portfolio.) 1. More AI wins across the board (but still local) Early AI gains were mostly in eng and customer support. Now actual process changes (not just pilots!) are coming from finance, IT, ops, and internal workflows. Nothing is scaling org-wide yet. But the momentum is real, and it’s creating an optimistic outlook. 2. No single path, one common blocker Wins came from top-down approaches and bottom-up experimentation. What’s consistent is breakthroughs happen when teams can step outside their day to day and spend time to rethink the work itself. 3. Teams need more context from each other A common challenge: AI teams understand the tech better than the business. Many leaders are increasing cross-functional convos, interviews, and workflow discovery efforts with their AI centers of excellence. Shared context is quickly becoming the prerequisite for meaningful AI transformation. To get ahead in the next phase, orgs will need to build in a context layer quickly to better align teams and projects. As one guest put it “we’re only at the beginning” but the window to get ahead is closing faster than most organizations realize. 👉To understand how missing context could be slowing your org’s progress on AI, start here: scribe.com/context-maturi…

Enterprise AI has a CONTEXT problem. (And everyone is feeling it.) AI transformations aren’t progressing fast enough to feel like the big breakthrough is close. The uncomfortable truth is AI is pushing orgs to outline EXACTLY how they actually work. And it’s messy. There are thousands of workflows AI can’t see. Hundreds of decisions it can’t trace or recreate. (Not to mention any dupes or conflicts on process or definitions.) AI doesn’t understand your org at all. Humans can navigate that kind of ambiguity fairly well. But AI can’t function without context — and that’s the EXISTENTIAL problem for the enterprise. It’s causing a new layer of the enterprise stack to emerge. Frontier labs are reorganizing around context, partnering with big consulting firms. They know the models are powerful enough now, BUT won’t unlock transformative value until they fully understand an org. Once workflows become machine-readable, the system can start learning how work actually happens: where things get stuck, which decisions lead to good outcomes, what needs human judgment, and what agents can take off people’s plates. That’s the tighter, faster path to transformation that orgs need right now. As a former consultant, I’ll say this: you don’t need a team of consultants to start making your org legible. That’s one of the reasons I started @ScribeHow Head here to see what we’ve been up to→ scribe.com/library/100-mi…

“AI is a Ferrari..but no one got driving lessons.” That was from a dinner I hosted last week with AI leaders. The pressure is increasing across the board. And all of them, regardless of industry, are facing the same blockers. Here are 3 trends I keep hearing👇 linkedin.com/posts/jennifer…

I met with 20+ F500 execs in NYC last week. AI attitudes have shifted dramatically. Here are 7 trends I'm seeing 👇 linkedin.com/posts/jennifer…

@businessbarista Workflow context. AI only works when it understands the work.

I've been asking $100m+ company execs one question: "What is the #1 thing slowing/stopping your company's AI transformation?" A non-exhaustive list of responses: 1) Data quality and connectivity of systems. Plus systems that play nice with AI. 2) Lack of leadership buy-in and implementation 3) Data governance restrictions. 4) Willingness of staff to adopt AI. 5) Incurious culture. Lack of knowledge of the current state of AI 6) Tooling doesn't have API access; team is still learning how to use LLMs. 7) Industry regulation/privacy. 8) Data quality and lack of a comprehensive AI system across the full company. 9) Unclear ownership across teams. 10) Time to actually build solutions. 11) Mixed AI literacy levels across teams. 12) No clear strategy / I'm starting the initiative from scratch. 13) Quality output. 14) Upskilling developers. 15) Silos. 16) Data Security and Security Guideline unclear. 17) Lack of training. 18) Data quality is unclear across multi-product teams. 19) Time. What would your answer be to this question?

@MaryBowdenMD @WTPatriotsUSA @grok how can they legally do this in florida?

A thriving 7 year old girl with cystic fibrosis has been medically kidnapped from her parents in Florida. DCF laughed when they took her from her home. @WTPatriotsUSA is fighting to bring her back.

The way we work today is fundamentally broken — and it’s squandering the most powerful force in the universe: human potential. I joined @jonfortt on CNBC to talk about building @ScribeHow to uplevel how we work. Last week, we announced our $75M Series C, a $1.3B valuation, and the launch of Scribe Optimize — the next chapter in unlocking human potential by making work actually WORK. But this moment has been over a decade in the making. 10 years ago, I was a consultant pulling up a chair to look over the shoulders of the best operators and document what they did well. I saw extraordinary talent locked inside people’s heads, and staggering amounts of time and potential wasted because no one else could see the best ways of working. So we built Scribe Capture — now used by 5M+ people and 94% of the Fortune 500 to document, share, and scale the expertise that was once trapped in people’s heads. In the last year, leaders started telling me: “We have AI mandates to work smarter… but we’re flying blind.” To know what’s working and what’s holding you back, you need to understand it first. And even AI can’t improve what it can’t see. Most leaders are still guessing at what to improve, and Scribe Optimize ends that. It gives you a real-time view of how work actually happens — and shows you exactly how to make it better. Step by step. For the first time, you can see your work — and IMPROVE it — from a single screen. Human potential expands when we have better tools. See Scribe Optimize in action → scribe.com/optimize?utm_c…

I used to walk through Times Square every morning as a Wall Street intern. It always felt like the place people came to do big things. Today, @ScribeHow is up on the @Nasdaq screen in Times Square. It’s surreal — and deeply meaningful. We started as a handful of people with a bold idea: to make work better. Now, we just announced Scribe Optimize and our $75M Series C at a $1.3B valuation. We’ve always been about unlocking human potential — with our products and in our people. One of my greatest joys building Scribe is watching our team grow into extraordinary leaders. People who’ve done things they once thought were impossible. That same belief now powers our new product, Optimize — helping our customers unlock the same kind of potential in how THEY work. From day one, we’ve built Scribe to “be the place where great people come to do the best work of their careers.” (👈Our People mission statement) Because building a world-changing company starts with the PEOPLE who build it. If you relentlessly push the standard higher, if you don’t just execute brilliantly, but you reimagine what’s possible, we’d love to meet you 💜 Come do the best work of your career. 👉 scribe.com/careers?utm_ch…

I've seen the internet, cloud and mobile reshape the world 🌎 And now we’re living through an even bigger shift: AI. Human potential expands when we have better tools. With AI, we can do more, dream bigger, and achieve more than we thought possible. Like previous shifts — the people and companies who benefit most don’t simply adapt. They LEAD it. But with AI right now, it’s hard to know where to lead. That’s why we built Scribe Optimize. It’s AI that enables you to lead change - for your self, team, and organization. Right now, so many AI initiatives are failing. Because teams are trying to transform without the data, visibility, or strategy they need to act intentionally. Scribe Optimize is the unfair advantage. It gives you objective data on how work really happens, pinpoints where AI can drive impact, and helps your team execute end-to-end. The future of how we work is going to look radically different. A few years from now, we’re all going to look back and say: “I can’t believe we used to work that way.” Here’s to leading the charge 💪 Learn more about why we built Scribe Optimize 👉 scribe.com/library/optimi…

We didn’t raise our Series C at a $1.3B valuation for the headline. We did it to change how the world works. Today’s announcement changes everything. I’m thrilled to announce Scribe Optimize, the newest product on our Workflow AI platform. Today, more than 5 million people use @ScribeHow to document how work gets done. The next question customers always ask us is: “How can we make work better?” Every leader I speak with wants to uplevel how work gets done. (And that’s what their AI mandates are really about.) But here’s the problem: you can’t improve what you can’t SEE 👀 To know what’s working and what’s holding you back, you need to understand it. And right now? No one can. 😳 Scribe Optimize changes that. It gives you a real-time view of how work actually happens — and shows you exactly how to make it better. Step by step. For the first time, you can see your work — and IMPROVE it — from a single screen. AI transformation in a single pane of glass. The next chapter starts now 🚀 See my announcement: 👉 scribe.com/library/optimi… To our users: thank you for pushing us to be better. To our investors: thank you for believing from day one.

Yesterday, we announced @ScribeHow's $75M Series C at a $1.3B valuation. But tomorrow is what I’m really fired up about 🔥 Because we’re announcing what I’ve dreamt about since day one — From those early investor pitches, to our first product launch, to the late nights assembling used desks in our first office with @theapod. Our dream was to change how the world works. And tomorrow we will. I gave TechCrunch a preview of what’s coming and why. Be a part of the Workflow AI movement — save your spot for tomorrow: scribe.com/optimize?utm_c…