Field notes.
What I have learned building AI into other people's operations: how the work gets chosen, built, reviewed, and owned.
Note index
Newest first. Date issued · subject · reading time.
- Muse for small business: three workflows worth testing firstA practical guide to testing Meta Muse for small business: campaign preparation, customer follow-ups, and monthly review, with clear ownership and measured results.4 min
- Instinct for small-business owners: where a personal AI assistant fitsA practical look at Instinct for business owners: personal assistant use cases, current access and pricing limits, and what to clarify before a team pilot.4 min
- OpenAI dots for small business: give an agent one job it can ownWhat OpenAI dots can do, who can access them, and how a small business can test one ongoing workflow with clear instructions, review, and a stop point.4 min
- What AI consulting costs in Sacramento depends on the workA practical guide to the factors behind an AI consulting proposal in Sacramento: workflow scope, data, integrations, human review, operating costs, and travel.6 min
- Automation assessment worksheet: choose a workflow worth testingScope one automation pilot with observed volume, a manual baseline, exception handling, review effort, and an owner before making a savings claim.4 min
- What actually happens in a one-day live buildThe hour-by-hour shape of a Live Build Workshop: choosing the workflow, red-lining it, building on real examples, breaking it on the hard cases, naming an owner.5 min read
- How to pick the first workflow (and the three you should not start with)Five tests a first automation candidate has to pass, three candidates that look attractive and are not, and what to do when the best one fails a test.5 min read
- Leave it manual: the most useful note on the drawingWhat should stay in human hands, how to write the leave-manual list before you build, and why marking it makes the automated part worth trusting.5 min read
- The first ninety days of a fractional Chief AI OfficerWhat an outside AI lead actually does in three months: inventory and decisions, one build through a review gate, then a policy people follow and a first scorecard.5 min read
- The stop decision: a build sprint is allowed to end with nothing installedEvaluating on real examples before installation, agreeing the bar before you look, and why a written recommendation not to build is a deliverable worth paying for.5 min read
- Your AI readiness is mostly an ownership questionA walk through the five dimensions the readiness assessment scores, why ownership is the one the others rest on, and when the honest answer is to buy nothing yet.5 min read
- AI Automation for Sacramento Contractors: Bids, Change Orders, and Field PaperworkA workflow-by-workflow teardown of where AI automation actually works in a construction business: estimating and bid drafting, change orders, submittals and RFIs, field paperwork, subcontractor documents, progress billing — and what should stay human.14 min read
- CPA Firm Automation: What Sacramento Accountants Automate Before Tax SeasonThe workflows Sacramento CPA firms automate in the September-to-December window: client document intake and organizer chasing, engagement letters, prep-support checks, status communication, and bookkeeping-cleanup triage — plus what stays firmly human.12 min read
- The Real Monthly Cost of Running AI (And How to Keep It Sane)AI spend creeps the way SaaS spend did, only faster, because half of it is metered. Here is the monthly audit I run on my own systems.7 min read
- How to Audit Your Business for AI Opportunities: The Four-Phase Method I UseBefore you buy an AI tool, run the audit: inventory every recurring task, score the candidates, fix the top three properly, then verify the hours came back.8 min read
- AI Agents, Explained for Business Owners (Minus the Hype)What “agent” actually means, the work agents hold up on today, where they still fail, and the three guardrails I would not deploy one without.9 min read
- Speed to Lead: The Cheapest AI Win for Sacramento Service BusinessesService businesses lose inquiries in the gap between when a lead arrives and when a human is free. Here is what an AI follow-up system does about it.7 min read
- AI for Sacramento Law Firms: Intake, Drafting, and Getting Hours BackWhere AI fits around legal work in a small firm: intake, document assembly, billing narratives. And the parts that stay with an attorney.8 min read
- AI for Medical Practices in Sacramento: What’s Actually Worth the InvestmentWhere AI earns its place in a medical practice: prior authorization, intake, eligibility, care gap outreach. And what to leave alone for now.9 min read
Where the notes lead.
- The four engagementsAssessment, workshop, build sprint, fractional lead, side by side.
- Point of viewThe operating positions these notes keep returning to. Opinion, signed.
- How we workWhat an engagement looks like from the first call to the handoff.
- ResearchPublished method and source-checked benchmarks, kept apart from opinion.
Disagree with one of these?
Bring the workflow you think proves me wrong. Thirty minutes, with me, and an honest answer about whether there is anything worth building.