Notes on AI, automation and software development for businesses, drawn from client projects and the products we run ourselves.
AI for Business10 min read
You've decided to get a customer chatbot. Three doors are open to you: an off-the-shelf SaaS product billed monthly, a lightweight build on top of the ChatGPT or Claude API, or a fully custom system built from scratch for your business. Every vendor points at their own door. And no surprise, ever...
AI for Business10 min read
Here's a line we hear in almost every discovery call: "We need an AI agent." When we dig into what's actually going on, the real need usually turns out to be something like auto-filling a Google Sheet or answering a customer's FAQ, nothing close to an expensive "agent" or a complicated system. A ...
AI for Business10 min read
Quick guessing game: how many people at your company are using ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to get their work done right now? If your answer is "not us, we don't allow that," here's the uncomfortable part. A 2025 study by KPMG and the University of Melbourne, covering more than 48,000 employees acr...
AI for Business11 min read
Every AI pitch eventually hits the same question from whoever controls the budget: "Fine, but when does this pay for itself?" Answer with "it'll boost efficiency" and the project quietly dies in committee. Answer with a number ("under four months, in the conservative case") and the conversation c...
AI for Business11 min read
Ask a software company "how much does an AI project cost?" and you already know the answer: "it depends." True, but useless. You already have a number in your head, maybe $2,500, maybe $10,000, maybe $40,000, and what you actually want to know is: what can I realistically get for that? This piece...
