August in review: three launches, one deadline, one reversal
A dense month that changed less than it appeared to. What to carry into September, in five lines.
August had more genuine news than any month since January: open weights from OpenAI, GPT-5, a regulatory deadline, a model restored after public complaint, and another DeepSeek release. Here is what actually matters going into autumn.
The regulatory chapter is closed until 2026
The 2 August deadline passed without consequence for Swiss SMEs, as this blog predicted twice. Documentation now exists for the models you use; saving the link is a ten-minute job. The next dates are a year out, in both Brussels and Bern.
Model choice matters less than it did in January
There are now roughly eight credible options, several of them downloadable, and the gaps between them are narrower than the gap between a company that has a process and one that does not.
Version stability matters more
The clearest lesson of the month. A product changed under millions of users, their work behaved differently, and they said so loudly enough to force a partial reversal. You cannot rely on that happening for you. Ask about pinning.
The unglamorous problems are still the real ones
Two of this month’s posts had nothing to do with any launch: why staff do not use the tool you approved, and what apprentices stop learning. In our experience those cost Swiss companies far more than any model decision, and they receive a fraction of the attention.
What to do in September
One thing. Ask five people who are not using your approved tool what happened, individually. Everything above is context; that conversation is the work.
Autumn is when budgets get written. It is a better time to know the answer than to guess it.