Metrics that Measure Up

Recent Episodes

1. Forward-Deployed Engineers (FDEs) - AI's New ROI Battleground

   Aug 4, 2026

   Ray Reich (founder and CEO of Benchmarket, co-host of Metrics Brothers) and co-host Peter Buchanan (managing partner of New Plan) analyze the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) revolution across five major players—OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, Microsoft, and Google—who have collectively committed over $10 billion to FDE ventures to address the enterprise AI ROI gap. The hosts break down each company's approach, compare them to Palantier's 20-year FDE legacy, and provide guidance for CFOs and GTM leaders on avoiding lock-in, ensuring IP protection, and planning for long-term maintenance costs.

2. Chinese Open Weight Models Overtake US Frontier AI: What Every Enterprise Executive Needs to Know

   Jul 30, 2026

   Ray Reich (founder and CEO of Benchmarket) and co-host Peter Buchanan (managing partner of New Plan) discuss the rapid rise of Chinese open-weight AI models, which now command 45-61% of top-tier model traffic compared to just 2% at end of 2024. The episode examines why enterprises are switching to cheaper Chinese models like DeepSeek, how U.S. frontier labs and government are responding with inconsistent policies, and three scenarios for how the closed vs. open-weight model competition may resolve.

3. AI is Hot - AI Regulation is a Hot Mess

   Jul 28, 2026

   Ray Reich (CO of Benchmarket) and Peter Buchanan (Managing Partner at New Plan) discuss the U.S. Department of Commerce's June 12th directive ordering Anthropic to suspend access to Claude 5 and Mythic 5 globally, the first time the government used export controls to take a frontier AI model offline. The episode covers industry, developer, and allied government reactions, and proposes a comprehensive six-point federal regulatory framework for AI including pre-release testing, clear jurisdictional lines, data center governance, and child safety standards.

4. Building the 100x Org - The CFO as AI Architect with Dan Zhang, CFO & CBO at ClickUp

   Jul 22, 2026

   Dan Zhang, CFO and Chief Business Officer at ClickUp, discusses his unconventional AI transformation strategy called the '100x Org.' After experimenting with both top-down and bottom-up AI mandates that failed, Zhang repositioned the CFO role as the leader of organizational-wide AI transformation, grounded in a 'jobs to be done' framework rather than technology-first experimentation. The conversation covers why CFOs are uniquely positioned to drive AI adoption, how to measure real financial outcomes beyond pilot projects, and the importance of cost visibility and organizational redesign in scaling AI across hundreds of knowledge workers.

5. AI is a Compensation Scale Expense

   Jul 21, 2026

   Ray Reich (Benchmarket founder) and Peter Buchanan (New Plan founder) discuss the critical gap between AI token price deflation and exploding enterprise AI spending. They analyze three cautionary tales—Uber's $500M monthly Claude bill, Microsoft's license revocation, and an unnamed $500M single-month cloud bill—to illustrate governance failures. The episode examines where AI budgets will come from (primarily labor reallocation via attrition), the metrics CFOs must track, and why companies that measure AI ROI now will gain competitive advantage.

6. AI-Native Services: The $100B Disruption of Professional Services

   Jul 16, 2026

7. AI Math is not Adding Up - Where is the ROI?

   Jul 14, 2026

8. The AI Coding Wars, Inflection Point and the Cursor-SpaceX Deal | AI to ROI: The Big Story

   Jul 7, 2026

9. AI Governance, Ethics, and the Stewardship Framework: A Conversation with Evan Schwartz, Chief Innovation Officer at AMCS Group

   Jul 7, 2026

10. Big Book of AI Metrics

    Jul 2, 2026