It is a pleasure and an honour to welcome you to the first edition of Applied AI Letters. Getting to this point has been a combination of many people's hard work and we are very excited to move into the next stage, sharing our vision for Applied AI Letters with you. Why did we start Applied AI Letters?When we consider the lifecycle of a successful idea, we can identify some unique stages. We have put these together in Figure 1. Initially, a challenge should be identified, and it is often (although not always) the case that there is some idea of the impact solving this challenge should have. If this challenge ignites the scientific spirit, research then begins post haste. Hopefully, at some point a research breakthrough is made, allowing a first in kind or first in class solution to the challenge. Solving a challenge is not the end of the story though, with the approach then being generalised, allowing its application to new and more impactful areas. Finally, the idea becomes so ingrained in the scientific and technological psyche that its use is no longer questioned, but expected; we call this the commoditisation stage. This way of thinking has been adopted in many places, such as the technology adoption curve, and the TRL levels used by, for example, NASA and the EU.\cite{hder2017}