Cost and ROI7 min read
The only automation maths that matters
Most automation business cases are written to be approved, not to be true. Here is the calculation we run before quoting, including the two costs everyone leaves out.
Blog
What we have learned building this stuff
Written by the engineers doing the work, from real engagements. No listicles, no predictions, no vendor marketing dressed as analysis.
Latest
Most recent
Automation8 min read
Why automations break, in order of frequency
Ranked from the diagnostic work we have done on other people's broken workflows. The causes are boringly consistent, and almost all of them are preventable at build time.
AI engineering9 min read
What separates an AI agent demo from a production agent
A demo agent needs to work once, in front of you. A production agent needs to work ten thousand times, unsupervised, including on inputs nobody anticipated. The gap is mostly engineering, not prompting.
Automation
2 articlesAutomation8 min read
Why automations break, in order of frequency
Ranked from the diagnostic work we have done on other people's broken workflows. The causes are boringly consistent, and almost all of them are preventable at build time.
Automation7 min read
Inheriting somebody else's automations
The developer left, the agency was replaced, and now a set of workflows nobody understands is running the business. A method for getting control back without breaking anything.
AI engineering
2 articlesAI engineering9 min read
What separates an AI agent demo from a production agent
A demo agent needs to work once, in front of you. A production agent needs to work ten thousand times, unsupervised, including on inputs nobody anticipated. The gap is mostly engineering, not prompting.
AI engineering8 min read
Retrieval systems that answer correctly, and how to prove it
Most retrieval builds fail at chunking and evaluation, not at the model. What we do differently and how we measure whether it worked.
Operations
3 articlesOperations6 min read
Speed to lead: the least glamorous growth lever
Response time beats almost every other conversion optimization available to a service business, and it is mostly a plumbing problem.
Operations6 min read
Why we document the process before automating it
Automating an undocumented process encodes its accidents permanently. The mapping session is the cheapest part of the project and the one that changes the outcome most.
Operations5 min read
Start with the boring automation, not the impressive one
The first automation should be small, dull, and finished in a week. Here is why the ambitious first project fails so consistently.
Cost and ROI
3 articlesCost and ROI7 min read
The only automation maths that matters
Most automation business cases are written to be approved, not to be true. Here is the calculation we run before quoting, including the two costs everyone leaves out.
Cost and ROI7 min read
Cutting AI running costs without cutting quality
Most production AI workloads are paying for capability they do not use on the majority of their traffic. Six changes that reduce spend materially and are measurable.
Cost and ROI6 min read
Seven times we told a client not to automate
Real situations where the honest recommendation was to do nothing, fix something else, or hire a person instead.
Platforms
2 articlesPlatforms8 min read
n8n, Zapier, Make, or code: choosing without the marketing
The decision comes down to volume, control, and who maintains it. Here is the framework we use, including the cost crossover points where the answer changes.
Platforms7 min read
Automating WhatsApp without losing the account
WhatsApp is the primary business channel across much of the world and the rules for automating it are strict. What is allowed, what is not, and how accounts get restricted.
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