Automation and agentic AI · One client at a time · London & remote

Automation and agentic AI

A business runs on many small manual steps. We write down how the work runs, you sign the record off, and we build the automation that removes the steps.

First engagement Automation or agent Enquire
§ 01 · Manual work
Where the hours go

Manual work

A business runs on many small manual steps. The same details are keyed into a second system. A file is renamed, moved and attached. A deadline is remembered by a person because nothing records it. A weekly figure is put together by hand from three places because nothing adds it up.

None of it is difficult. It takes hours, and the hours come from people who have other work to do.

We write those steps down, agree the record with you, and build the systems that remove them. Some of that is plain automation and some of it is an agent. Which one a step needs is settled before anything is built.

The places where the manual work collects differ little from one business to the next.

Where the manual work collects
Between two systemsThe same details keyed into the second system because the two are not connected. Names, addresses, dates, amounts and reference numbers, entered twice and sometimes differently.
Beside a systemThe spreadsheet that holds the fields the system does not have. One person keeps it and several rely on it.
At the inboxWork that arrives as prose and is turned into a record by hand: enquiries, instructions, changes and confirmations.
At the handoverThe point where a job passes from one person to the next. Its state travels in a message rather than in anything the business holds.
Around documentsFiles renamed to the convention, moved to the right folder and attached to the right record, every time.
At the reportThe weekly or monthly figure put together by hand from several places because nothing adds it up.
In the chasingThe second and third reminders, sent because nothing tracks who owes what by when.
At the approvalThe item waiting for one person to look at it, with nothing recording that it is waiting or for how long.
Nobody here is doing their job badly. Each of these is a gap between two systems, closed by hand.
This is the general pattern. Which of these costs you most differs by business, and the discovery day settles it.
§ 02 · Choice
Decided by the shape of the work

Automation or agent

Fixed rules and clean data need a script. An agent is needed only where the work has several steps, judgement at some of them, and more variation than a fixed process can take.

Plain automation is quicker to build and cheaper to run, and it does the same thing every time. A script that always does the same thing can be checked once. Something that decides for itself has to be monitored.

Options
Work
Build
Fixed rules, clean data and the same steps each time
Plain automation
A few fields copied out of a document, or from one system to another
A simple tool
Several steps, judgement at some of them, and more variation than a fixed process can take
An agent
Only the last row needs an agent. The first two are quicker and cheaper to build without one.
We start at the top row and move down only where the work needs it.
Steps and hours
StepsMost of the work is automation
Most of what a business does by hand is deterministic: same input, same rule, same answer.
It belongs in plain automation, and most of the list ends up there.
Most of the steps, and the cheaper half to fix
HoursJudgement takes the hours
The steps that need judgement are fewer and take longer: the exceptions, the awkward cases, and the decisions nobody wrote down.
That is where the owner's time goes, so it is worth building for even though the list is short.
Fewer steps, more hours
Counted by steps, automation is nearly all of it. Counted by hours, the judgement work takes the week.
We use both counts to set the order of the build.
§ 03 · Engagement
Discovery day to build

First engagement

01 · ONE DAY · £950 FIXED
Discovery day.
One day of Joel Smalley's time, half on site and half writing up. He sits with the people who do the work. He records who does what, which systems they use, in what order, and where the manual work is.
02 · IN WRITING
Written record.
The current state in writing: the people, the systems and the flows step by step. It marks each point where somebody does by hand what a system should do. You read it, amend it and sign it off. It is yours whether or not anything is built on it.
03 · AFTER SIGN-OFF
Recommendations.
What to change, in what order, and what each change takes. Plain automation where the rules are fixed. An agent only where the work needs one. Some fixes are to the process itself and need no software.
04 · IN PHASES
Build.
We scope and price the build after you have signed off the record. It runs in phases, smallest useful piece first, and each phase is in use before the next one starts. Everything built has a named owner, a way to switch it off, and a person signing off the parts that matter.
We recommend nothing until you have signed off the record. You are the one who says the record is right. We do not quote a build before that, because the record is what says how big the build is.

The discovery day is not the free self-assessment. The self-assessment is twenty questions you answer about your own business, scored on screen, at no cost. The discovery day is chargeable work at £950 fixed, and the written record is yours whether or not anything is built afterwards. Where the work runs across channels that nothing records, the fuller practice on the method page applies.

§ 04 · Findings
Steps that look like waste

Workarounds

A workaround is usually a defence. What looks like wasted effort is usually built around a system that does not do its job. Examples are the duplicate spreadsheet, the second check, and the note kept on the side because the field does not exist. The step exists because the system does not hold something the person needs.

We find the requirement inside the workaround and meet it properly, rather than deleting the step. Delete the step and the requirement is still there, and the person who built the defence is working without one.

§ 05 · Fit
Whether the work needs a person

Training or automation

The work needs a person

Your judgement runs the work from start to finish. The slow part is how the job gets done. That is training: your own workflows rebuilt on Anthropic Claude AI with us, with your people taught as it happens.

The work does not need a person

It is repeatable, it crosses systems, and it takes hours from people who have other work to do. That is automation: written down, agreed with you, then built.

Most businesses need some of both, and the discovery day says how much of each. Send an enquiry, or answer twenty questions on the free self-assessment first.