AI 101 Series: The AI Stack That Survived 2026
A live 60-minute session closing out the year: a full review of what we taught, what we retired, and what is worth carrying into January — so you leave with a decision rather than another list of things to try.
Every December the same thing happens. You look at a list of forty tools you were told were essential, recognize six, pay for three, and use one. The problem is not that you fell behind. It is that nobody goes back and tells you which of last year's certainties turned out to be wrong.
In this closing session of the year, Arjita Sethi, founder of Build with AI Club, reviews twelve months of tools tested in public across every session in this series. What held up. What was hype. What quietly became infrastructure while nobody was watching. And what is coming in early 2027 that is worth preparing for now.
What you will learn:
What we taught in 2026 and what we quietly retired, with the reasons for both
The three capability shifts that genuinely changed what a non-technical person can do this year
How to evaluate a new tool in twenty minutes instead of two weeks
What is worth paying for, and what became free while you were not looking
What is arriving in early 2027, and what to start preparing for now
What you will walk away with:
A stack decision for next year rather than a list of things to try
A twenty-minute evaluation method you can use on anything new
A shortlist that fits your actual work
Who this is for: Everyone. This is the session to bring the person in your life who has been putting AI off, and the one to attend yourself if you have been collecting tools rather than using them. No technical background required.
Your host: Arjita Sethi is the founder of Build with AI Club, creator of the vibe-coded wellness platform Find Shaanti, a Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at San Francisco State University, Advisory Board member at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, and a Claude Community Ambassador for San Francisco for the non-technical and moms vertical. She has taught every tool in this review live, and dropped several of them publicly.