M22 Notes

Thinking from the work.

Practical writing on AI, automation and operations: what actually pays, what to avoid, and how the systems work in plain English.

August 2026 · 6 min read

What does an AI consultancy actually do?

Strip away the hype and an AI consultancy does three things: finds where your business loses money to manual work, proves the value of fixing it, and builds the fix. Here's what that looks like in practice.

August 2026 · 6 min read

How much does an AI consultancy cost in the UK?

Nobody publishes prices, everybody asks. Here are the real shapes UK AI consultancy pricing takes in 2026, the ranges behind them, and the only question that makes a price good or bad.

August 2026 · 7 min read

Claude vs ChatGPT for business: how to choose in 2026

The most common question we get from business owners, and the answer most articles dodge: it depends on the task, and picking per-task is easier than you think.

August 2026 · 6 min read

8 AI automations UK businesses are actually running in 2026

Not concepts, not pilots — the eight automations we see paying for themselves inside UK businesses right now, and what each one actually does behind the scenes.

August 2026 · 7 min read

What is a Company Brain? Your business knowledge, in one place that answers back

Every business runs on knowledge scattered across inboxes, drives, meeting notes and people's heads. A Company Brain is what happens when you connect it all — and let people ask.

August 2026 · 8 min read

How to run an AI audit on your own business (the framework we use)

You don't need a consultancy to start. This is the framework we use on client engagements, written so you can run a version of it yourself in a week.

August 2026 · 6 min read

Bespoke AI software vs off-the-shelf: build or buy?

Buying is faster and cheaper — until the day it isn't. Building is expensive — except when it's the bargain. The decision comes down to three questions.

August 2026 · 7 min read

GDPR and AI: using LLMs safely with UK customer data

You can use AI on customer data lawfully and safely — plenty of UK businesses do. The rules are mostly the ones you already know, applied carefully to some new plumbing.

August 2026 · 6 min read

AI agents, explained in plain English (for people who run businesses)

An agent is an AI that doesn't just answer — it does. Looks things up, uses your systems, completes multi-step work. Here's how they work and where the line is in 2026.

August 2026 · 5 min read

Human-in-the-loop: why the best automation keeps a person in charge

The automations that survive contact with reality share one design choice: at every point where a mistake would be expensive, embarrassing or irreversible, a person says yes.

August 2026 · 6 min read

AI in property: how one search replaced days of site sourcing

Site sourcing used to mean analysts, portals, title documents and spreadsheets. Here's what it looks like when the whole pipeline runs from one screen — a real system, in production.

August 2026 · 5 min read

Meetings that file themselves: transcription automation done properly

Transcribing a meeting is easy now. The value is in what happens next: summaries filed to the right client, actions assigned, and nothing depending on anyone remembering to do it.

August 2026 · 6 min read

OpenAI, Anthropic or Google: choosing a model provider without betting the business

The honest answer to 'which AI company should we use?' is: build so the question stops mattering. Here's what that looks like, and how we choose per task in the meantime.

August 2026 · 6 min read

RAG explained: how AI answers from your documents instead of making things up

The technique behind every 'chat with your documents' product, explained without the jargon — because if you buy or build one, you should know how it works and where it breaks.