Is Prompt Engineering Becoming Useless?

Top 3 Things in Today’s Latestly AI Edition

1. AI is moving from reactive chat to predictive automation: workflows, not prompts, are the battleground.

2. Compute, regulation, and sovereignty are reshaping where AI startups can actually scale.

3. Small teams with deep context models are now outpacing big incumbents.

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AI STORY OF THE WEEK

Meet Aidan Guo & Julian Windeck, From Scrappy Builders to Engineering a New Class of AI Desktop Assistant

In 2025, Attention Engineering looked strong on paper: a pre-seed raise of $1.25M from DeepMind/Sequoia scouts, Village Global, Liquid 2 Ventures, LayerZero and other seasoned angels. 

Reality?

They weren’t building another prompt-based chatbot. Attention Engineering aimed for something far harder: a proactive, ambient AI layer on the desktop that observes, models, and predicts user workflows across apps not just waits for text or voice input.

Most AI tools are reactive: you ask, they respond.

The Attention Engineering team wanted contextual automation that runs continuously in the background, learns patterns of behavior, and offers next-action predictions that feel like real assistance. 

That’s a much tougher technical challenge: it requires workflow inference models, contextual memory of task sequences, and continual multimodal input processing (screen context, app state, timing patterns, etc.).

Yet this is exactly where many productivity AI tools falter, catching context consistently is hard. 

What changed everything:
They prioritized proactive context modeling over hype-driven prompt response, enabling early demos that felt like anticipatory intelligence instead of just assisted typing.

By late 2025: $1.25M pre-seed secured, small engineering core (~5 devs), and early prototypes that interpret user intent from behavior patterns rather than prompts alone. 

Their edge?

Combining live workflow telemetry with machine learning models that can infer next likely user actions - effectively turning a desktop into a predictive automation layer. This is closer to predictive UI than a traditional assistant.

What’s Attention Engineering Doing?

AI Desktop Workflow Automation

Their product is not just a “AI assistant”
It’s designed to observe real desktop behavior, understand context (what apps you’re using, how you switch between tasks), and begin acting before you ask, like drafting emails, summarizing meetings, or suggesting next steps. 

Instead of a command prompt window, it behaves like an intuitive cursor-connected co-pilot → blending into workflows and anticipating actions rather than interrupting them. 

Built for Real Knowledge Workers

The tool is optimized for people drowning in tabs, apps, and repetitive workflows, the very definition of underserved by tools that are either too reactive or too constrained. Their focus on true context-based automation is exactly where most productivity tools fail

Why It Matters?

1. Hands-Off Productivity Is the Next UI Frontier

   ChatGPT-style interaction is great until you spend hours switching apps, retyping context, copying text. A proactive assistant that knows what you’re doing and helps you do it faster could redefine how knowledge work gets done.

2. Masters of Timing Over Flashy Hype

   In a world chasing bigger models and bigger demos, what matters to users isn’t the size of your LLM, it’s whether it actually cuts hours off work every day. Aidan & Julian are betting on utility first, hype later.

Lessons for Founders

• Build for friction, not hype.

  They didn’t chase generative fashion or copilot catchphrases, they targeted the root problem: context loss across apps.

• Early focus beats big squads.

  With a tiny team, they’re iterating on something hard: proactive assistants that integrate with real workflows, not demos that die after a slide deck.

• Young founders can still get serious capital.

  They raised $1.25M with a clear vision and early progress showing that execution speed and vision can outweigh pedigree when you have both.  

What to Watch Next?

1. Can they turn anticipation into automation?

   The real test isn’t suggestions, it’s reliable actions you can trust at scale without breaking workflows.

2. Will enterprise adoption amplify traction?

   If the tool saves time for teams, not just individuals that could unlock a larger revenue play.

3. Can they stay independent or need bigger raises?

   At $1.25M and early traction, both paths are open but each has strategic trade-offs.

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GLOBAL AI NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

The Most Important AI Developments Happening Now : Region by Region

🌎 Americas

1. Anthropic Announces $50B US Data Center Expansion: Anthropic revealed large-scale data center projects in New York and Texas to expand domestic AI compute. ^{_{(Source: Data Center Knowledge, December 2, 2025)}}

2. US DOE Commits $320M to AI for Science: The Department of Energy launched new funding under its Genesis Mission AI program.

   ^{_{(Source: Department of Energy, December 9, 2025)}}

3. Microsoft Commits $7.5B to Canada AI Infrastructure: Microsoft expanded hyperscale AI capacity to support Canadian data sovereignty.
   ^{_{(Source: Sophic Capital, December 14, 2025)}}

🌍 Europe

1. PolyAI Raises €73.2M for Enterprise Conversational AI: London-based PolyAI secured fresh funding to scale enterprise deployments.
   ^{_{(Source: EU-Startups, December 15, 2025)}}

2. EU Expands GenAI4EU Funding to €700M: The Commission increased non-dilutive funding for sector-specific generative AI.

   ^{_{(Source: European Commission, December 2025)}}

3. Lynk Raises Pre-Seed for AI Contract Management: Rotterdam-based Lynk closed funding to automate contract workflows.

   ^{_{(Source: Tech.eu, December 10, 2025)}}

🌏 Middle East

1. Qatar Launches National AI Company “Qai”: Qatar unveiled a sovereign AI company to build national infrastructure. ^{_{(Source: Computer Weekly, December 11, 2025)}}

2. Saudi PIF and Google Cloud Announce $10B AI Hub: A major partnership to build localized AI infrastructure. ^{_{(Source: Weekly Gulf AI Insights, December 7, 2025)}}

3. UAE Confirms $2.1B+ in AI Funding Momentum: December reporting highlighted continued capital inflows into UAE AI firms.

   ^{_{(Source: Asia Lifestyle Magazine, December 2025)}}

🌏 Asia-Pacific

1. Microsoft and Amazon Commit $52.5B to India AI Infrastructure: Both companies announced major investments into AI hubs and sovereign cloud.

   ^{_{(Source: Computing UK, December 11, 2025)}}

2. India Ranks 3rd in Stanford Global AI Index: India climbed from 7th to 3rd globally across talent, R&D, and infrastructure. ^{_{(Source: Stanford University / Eastern Eye, December 14, 2025)}}

3. Serval Becomes Unicorn with $75M Series B: AI-powered IT automation startup Serval raised at a $1B valuation. ^{_{(Source: Reuters, December 11, 2025)}}

🌍 Africa

1. Algeria’s VOLZ Raises $5M Series A: A landmark funding round announced in December. ^{_{(Source: Wamda, December 2025)}}

2. Google Expands AI Search Mode Across Africa: Gemini-powered AI search rolled out more broadly in key markets. ^{_{(Source: iAfrica, December 2025)}}

3. South Africa’s Ageiro Raises $3M for Enterprise AI: Funding targets AI-driven software automation. ^{_{(Source: Techloy, December 11, 2025)}}

🌏 Oceania

1. Australia Releases National AI Plan: The December 2 plan favors light-touch regulation and major data center investment. ^{_{(Source: Australian Government, December 2, 2025)}}

2. Airwallex Raises A$498M Series G: The fintech unicorn raised capital ahead of a 2026 IPO. ^{_{(Source: Startup Researcher, December 13, 2025)}}

3. Australia Appoints AI Expert to Competition Authority: Ian Oppermann joined the ACCC in December. ^{_{(Source: Startup Researcher, December 13, 2025)}}

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