The Disciplines Plate I AI Adoption & Implementation
AI Adoption &
Implementation.
Cutting through the hype. Practical AI that earns its place in your business.
Document search that actually finds things. Support that doesn't burn your reputation. Models chosen for the job, not the marketing deck. Commissioned work for small businesses across Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
Return to the workshopAI isn't magic, and it isn't a silver bullet - but applied thoughtfully to the right problems, it can save a small business hours every week and unlock capabilities that genuinely weren't possible before. The trick is knowing which problems are worth applying it to, and which are better solved the old-fashioned way.
So the work starts with looking, not building: which jobs here are repetitive enough, and tolerant enough of the occasional wrong answer, to be worth handing over. Sometimes the honest finding is that none of them are, and you get told that. No buzzwords sold by people who haven't shipped production code, and no "AI-powered" sticker on a tool that worked perfectly well without one.
§ The work
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I.
Intelligent document search
Stop wasting time searching through emails, PDFs, and shared drives. AI-powered retrieval (RAG) that understands context and finds the exact passage in seconds across all of your business documents - even the ones nobody remembers writing.
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II.
AI customer support
Automated conversation systems trained on your business knowledge. Answers common questions 24/7, handles triage, and hands off cleanly to a human for anything that needs real judgement. Reduces support load without burning your reputation on bad answers.
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III.
Data analysis & insights
Turn the spreadsheets nobody opens into actionable intelligence. Pattern detection, trend surfacing, and opportunity identification - without needing a dedicated data-science team or a six-figure BI stack.
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IV.
Content generation & summarisation
Automate the repetitive writing, generate sensible first drafts, summarise the 40-page report nobody's going to read. Product descriptions, meeting notes, research digests - grunt work handled, strategy kept human.
§ The process
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Step 1
Discovery
I start by understanding your actual pain points - not what AI vendors think you need. Where are you wasting time? What manual process could be smarter? What information is hard to find when you need it?
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Step 2
Opportunity analysis
I identify specific AI applications that make sense for your business and budget. Some problems need custom solutions; others can use off-the-shelf tools configured properly. I'll tell you honestly which is which.
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Step 3
Proof of concept
Before building anything big, I create a working prototype. You test the concept, see real results, and make an informed decision about moving forward - without betting the farm on unproven technology.
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Step 4
Implementation
I build and deploy the real thing, integrate it with your existing systems, and train your team to use it effectively. No jargon, no unnecessary complexity - just tools that work.
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Step 5
Refinement
AI systems improve with use. I monitor performance, gather feedback, and refine the implementation to ensure you're getting maximum value. Ongoing support is included - not an upsell.
Questions, answered
How do I know whether AI is worth it for my business?
Usually by looking at where the same question gets answered fifteen times a week, or where somebody reads a document to find one number. Those are the shapes AI is genuinely good at. If the honest answer after looking is that it would not earn its place, that is the answer you get.
Will my data be used to train a model?
No. Where a hosted model is used, it is one whose terms exclude training on customer data, and the arrangement is written down rather than assumed. Where that is not acceptable, the work runs on a model hosted on infrastructure you control.
What does a commission cost?
Work is quoted per commission, after a conversation. There is no day rate to quote at you and no package to fit into, because the shape of the job decides the price and nobody knows the shape yet. The first half hour is free, and it usually settles the question of whether this is a small piece of work or a large one before any money is discussed.
Who owns the code when it is finished?
You do. Outright, including the source. It is handed over with the runbooks needed to keep it running, and there is no licence to renew and no seat to pay for. Commissions, not subscriptions, is meant literally.
What happens if you are unavailable?
Everything is built to be picked up by somebody else: ordinary technologies, readable code, written runbooks and no proprietary lock-in. It is a fair question to ask a one-person workshop, and the answer has to be in the work rather than in a promise.
Do you work outside Suffolk and Cambridgeshire?
Yes. Local work gets the option of somebody in the room, which is worth more than it sounds for the first conversation and the handover. Everything after that is done remotely for most clients anyway.