MortarCloud.ai · Publications
Three white papers on putting artificial intelligence (AI) to work for the business.
The Business Comes First is the umbrella paper and states how we work. The Inception Void addresses the foundation for building. Non-Human Resources describes the management function that a co-intelligent workforce requires.
Each paper is listed with its title, abstract, version and date, and each portable document format (PDF) file is the publication master.
Paper one · The umbrella paper
The Business Comes First
Putting AI to work and building knowledge the business can keep
A team has an AI assistant, a custom application and several ways to share information, and work still stalls while the business gains capability and its understanding of how the work fits together falls behind. At MortarCloud.ai, we help leaders resolve those gaps around a consequential business decision: we connect relevant knowledge, people, systems and authority, establish what can be relied on, and leave a working record the business can use again. The question for a leader is practical: where can we make useful progress now, what must we understand to do it well, and what will the business retain?
Version and date Version 1.1, publication master of November 2, 2026
Author Dale Martin, founder, MortarCloud.ai
Paper two · The foundation for building
The Inception Void
When AI initiatives start in the middle
Many AI projects start in the middle: a model has been selected, a pilot is under way, and the next decision is whether to invest further, while the business outcome, the authority over what the system may do and the evidence of value remain unresolved. The Inception Void names that missing foundation. Closing it does not require documenting the entire enterprise before making progress; it requires establishing enough trustworthy business context to make the decision at hand, then retaining and improving that knowledge as the organization and its AI capabilities evolve.
Version and date Version 1.1, publication master of November 2, 2026
Author Dale Martin, founder, MortarCloud.ai
Paper three · The co-intelligent workforce
Non-Human Resources
The workforce your firm never hired, and the function that manages it
Once AI is involved in the work, the organization chart may look much as it did before, but the responsibilities beneath it have changed. Non-Human Resources is the management function that brings those responsibilities together: one part manages AI capabilities through their working life, from purpose and selection to limits, change and retirement, and the other redesigns human work around those capabilities. Every material delegation to AI is also a decision about human work.
Version and date Version 1.1, publication master of November 2, 2026
Author Dale Martin, founder, MortarCloud.ai
About the author
Dale Martin
Dale Martin is the founder of MortarCloud.ai and author of Bears & Mosquitoes: Building Trusted AI from the Inside Out. He spent three decades in enterprise technology, including senior management responsibility for AI operations and Responsible AI governance at Thermo Fisher Scientific. His responsibilities spanned internally developed generative AI capabilities, the transition to an enterprise ChatGPT Enterprise architecture, and governance within a global organization of more than 120,000 colleagues. At MortarCloud.ai, he applies that experience to business-first AI, context engineering, and client-owned business knowledge.
The views expressed are his own and do not imply endorsement by any current or former employer or affiliated organization.
Contact dale@dalemartin.ai | MortarCloud.ai
Rights and attribution
© 2026 Dale Martin. Published by MortarCloud.ai.
Co-intelligence, where the papers discuss it, is Ethan Mollick's contribution and is credited to him. The Trusted Living Agent Framework™ and the Trusted Living Twin™ are the governing method and the software described in the papers; a named pillar or signature does not by itself establish an implemented control. Hollister Reed LLP, where it appears, is a fictional firm with simulated records.
The book behind the practice, Bears & Mosquitoes, and its founding essay are at bearsandmosquitoes.ai.