A generic AI persona does not know how your firm works
Built-in 'marketing expert' and 'legal assistant' personas sound capable and know nothing about your firm. Write your own role profiles instead.
Insights
Notes from running our own companies.
What we learn putting sales follow-up, back office systems and AI to work, first in our own businesses and then in our clients'.
- 3 min read
- 3 min read
Why a small East African firm can get its AI ready faster
Big firms are ahead on AI agents, but what agents need most is written context. A 20-person firm in Nairobi can produce that in weeks.
- 3 min read
Ten people, ten ChatGPTs, and no shared rules
Most teams already use AI, each person in their own way and often in secret. Questions owners ask us about shadow AI, answered plainly.
- 3 min read
How to tell whether your AI rollout actually saved time
A four-column time log any owner can run for two weeks. It shows whether AI saved hours, where review ate them, and which part a company memory can fix.
- 4 min read
Write the AI pilot's stop rule before you write the prompt
Most AI pilots are not killed. They fade, and nobody records why. Six lines to write on day one so a pilot either earns its place or ends cleanly.
- 3 min read
McKinsey's 2026 AI survey, read from a 30-person firm
Nearly every company now uses AI, and the share seeing profit from it has barely moved in a year. Smaller firms trail on agents. Where that gap comes from.
- 3 min read
Buy the tool after you can draw the process on one page
A new CRM or AI assistant will copy whatever process you already have, including the gaps. Draw the process first. It costs a page and an afternoon.
- 3 min read
Six questions to ask before you buy an AI agent
Gartner expects over 40% of agentic AI projects to be cancelled by 2027, and says many agents on sale are not agents. Six questions to ask in the demo.
- 3 min read
More AI apps, the same re-explaining: notes on tool sprawl
Most firms now run several AI tools, and each one has been told a different version of the business. Count them, then decide where the context lives.
- 3 min read
Your team feels faster with AI. Has anyone timed it?
In a 2025 trial, experienced developers were 19% slower with AI while believing they were faster. Why the feeling and the clock disagree.
- 3 min read
The 95% AI pilot number says less than you think
Everyone quotes MIT's 95% figure. Few quote the reason the report gives for it, and that reason is the useful part for a business owner.
- 3 min read
The first six pages of a company memory, in order
You do not need a knowledge base to give your AI tools and your team a shared memory. You need six short pages, written in the right order.