Buonjourno, amici!

I know, I’m late! I’ve been busy but this issue comin’ in hot from Sicily.

I’m going to skip this upcoming issue as we prep for a big launch with the AI Maturity Index which I’ll tell you about below. It’s also my birthday on Saturday so I will be on ze beach. 🌴 

Let’s get into it.

In today’s issue

• ⚡️ Lightning List - What I’m reading this week

• 🚀 Launch Teaser - Get special perks and discounts for your community

• 🤝 Acquisition Bonanza - Automattic & Clay, Beeline & MBO Partners

• 💰️ Sponsor - BugHerd

⚡️ Lightning List ⚡️ 

🤖 AI Growth Guides Launch 🚀 

Perks for your community!

We're dropping something your communities are going to love.

🧭 AI Growth Guides, the AI Maturity Index’s new premium offering that creates personalized roadmaps for navigating the AI skills maze. Think of it as a GPS for professional development in an AI-first world, giving individuals tailored action plans instead of generic "learn prompt engineering" advice. We're launching on Product Hunt June 25th, and here's where it gets good for your community.

🫰 Your folks get 24 hours of free access (normally $29) plus a permanent 20% discount after that. 

This isn't another AI course, it's an enhanced roadmap that meets people where they are in their AI journey and shows them exactly what skills and abilities to develop next.

Drop me a line if you want to give your people early access to something that'll actually move the needle on their career development. I'll send over everything you need to make it effortless.

🐝 Beeline Snaps Up MBO Partners 🤝 

Extended workforce platform Beeline just acquired MBO Partners, the premier solution for managing high-value independent contractors, creating the industry's first truly comprehensive platform for all types of external talent. MBO Partners has supported over 500,000 client projects and served nearly 4,000 companies over its 30-year history.

This is massive for flexible workforce strategies. Independent contractors in the U.S. have surged 42.3% since 2021 to 72.7 million workers. Previously, managing independent talent "outside the VMS has historically led to fragmentation, inefficiency, and unnecessary risk," but this merger creates a unified solution for the entire extended workforce spectrum.

🥄 Automattic Scoops Up Clay 🪴 

WordPress.com owner Automattic just added relationship-management app Clay to its growing communication empire, following its acquisitions of messaging apps Beeper and Texts.com. Clay functions as a "smarter address book" that pulls data from LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms to help users manage their networks, with an AI helper that can answer questions like "who do I know at company X?"

Here's why you should care: Clay manages over 150 million relationships and aims to become "an identity layer for a variety of different tools." For leaders managing distributed teams and complex stakeholder networks, this signals a future where relationship management becomes as systematized as CRM—but for humans, not just leads.

This week’s sponsor is… BugHerd

BugHerd is a website feedback and bug tracking tool that makes it easy to collect and manage feedback.

Comments can be pinned to the website while viewing it, making it quick and simple to point out errors and bugs. All tasks move to a Kanban-style board making them easy to track so that nothing is missed.

BugHerd is perfect for website development teams, either agency-based or internal teams in companies.

• Project Managers and Account Managers

• Designers

• Web Developers and software teams

Ads help keep Weekly Workforce running. Please support by checking out this week’s sponsor (clicking them often buys me a coffee) or book in your ad.

That’s all for now, pals. See ya next week.

Eryn