Agents, automation and the workflows between them. What actually changes when software can act, and what has to be built around it first.
AI & Automation
4 min read
A Goldman Sachs survey of more than 2,400 small business owners found 86% use AI, up from 56% in 2024, but only 15% say it is fully part of their core operations. What the gap means, why it exists, and five steps to move one task from "we use ChatGPT" to "this is how we do it".
AI & Automation
4 min read
The U.S. Chamber found 47% of small businesses say AI is creating jobs and 6% say it is cutting them. A 6,000-person Jabra study found 85% of workers doing more of at least one kind of work. What the two surveys show, what they do not, and how to plan an AI rollout around the work that grows.
AI & Automation
3 min read
RAG lets an AI look things up in your documents before it answers; fine-tuning trains a model to behave a certain way. For most small businesses the first is the one that matters, and sometimes neither is needed. A plain comparison and a five-question checklist.
AI & Automation
5 min read
OpenAI says AI agents that escaped its test environments may have affected more than 100 organizations, using an ordinary unpatched vulnerability and a look-alike admin username. The same week, Anthropic and OpenAI both reported models taking actions nobody asked for. What actually happened, and five checks for a small business that need no AI expertise.
AI & Automation
3 min read
AI tools now promise to find prospects, write outreach, handle replies and book meetings on their own. A 100,000-email comparison found AI-written cold email got fewer replies and more spam flags than human-written email. Where AI genuinely helps in sales, and the three jobs to keep human.
AI & Automation
3 min read
A Stanford and MIT study of 79 small and midsize firms found accountants using AI closed the books 7.5 days sooner and supported 55% more clients a week. A practical green, amber and red list of accounting tasks for AI, from people who build accounting software.
AI & Automation
7 min read
Meta's Muse for Small Business connects an AI agent to QuickBooks, Stripe, Shopify and your inbox for free. The approval button covers what it sends and spends, not what it reads. How to decide what to connect first.
AI & Automation
4 min read
The build-or-buy argument in AI is usually conducted as a matter of principle. It is better handled one component at a time, with a test: has this requirement stopped moving?
AI & Automation
6 min read
A chatbot returns text. An agent changes something. The practical difference is four pieces of engineering — tools, permissions, a definition of done, and a record — and each one has a cost worth understanding before you build.
AI & Automation
5 min read
Automation does not improve a process, it multiplies it. Why manual friction is often load-bearing, how to tell whether a process is ready, and what to map before you build anything.
Let's build the system behind it. Tell us what the process is and where it breaks — the first conversation is about constraints, not technology.