W04 - What Does AI-Ready Mean?

Launched the AI-Ready Lab last week, which primarily addressed the questions people cared about. Two points are worth highlighting.

1. Primary goal of the initiative: reach consensus on what AI-ready front-end engineering looks like and align with leading industry practices. Previously I presented a dry view of AI-ready that wasn’t validated; I want to clear that preset conclusion and adopt a beginner’s mindset. I hope the engineering standards for AI-readiness will be established through this initiative and be subject to verification.

2. Core intent of AI-readiness: make engineering investments that compound over the long term. We’re not building shovels—someone will inevitably build competent shovels. Instead, we focus on the conditions in which a shovel produces maximum leverage. Identify things that can be done in advance and remain useful later. Don’t tie work to any single model or tool; do things that naturally capture the upside from improvements in LLMs and infrastructure.