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Open playbooks · Decision tools · Hands-on support

Turn AI interest into a business workflow that works.

Find worthwhile opportunities, compare your options, and move from experimentation to practical adoption — with open playbooks and hands-on support.

Just want to learn? Read the open playbooks — 21 chapters, free, in 10 languages.

Start from your situation

Which of these sounds like you?

Each situation calls for a different decision. Pick the closest one for the guide, tool and engagement that fit it.

Choose a starting point

“We've been told to adopt AI. Where should we start?”

What helps: A ranked shortlist with costs, dependencies and a credible first project.

Activate existing tools

“We bought AI tools, but useful adoption is patchy.”

What helps: Real workflows, working practice, controls and measured adoption.

Redesign a workflow

“This recurring process eats too much time.”

What helps: A redesigned workflow with measurable acceptance criteria.

Get a workflow approved

“We need approval before using AI with our information.”

What helps: A specific data-flow, risk and control assessment.

Fix a stalled pilot

“Our pilot works in a demo but isn't ready for staff.”

What helps: What's blocking it, and a practical remediation plan.

Compare products

“Which product should we buy?”

What helps: A requirements-led comparison tested against your own work.

See all 9 buying situations →

How it works

From a question to a workflow that works

Every engagement ends in a decision you can defend. Sometimes the right answer is to use software you already own and not commission custom AI — and we will say so.

  1. 01

    Describe the workflow

    Use the scorecard or the brief builder. You get a result straight away — no call required.

  2. 02

    Paid assessment

    A fixed-scope sprint or review that ends in a decision: go, fix first, or stop.

  3. 03

    Optional delivery

    Activation or implementation, accepted against criteria agreed before work starts.

  4. 04

    Measured outcome

    Baseline versus after: effort, quality, adoption and running cost.

Work with us

Three ways to start

Fixed-scope entry engagements with a concrete output and an agreed acceptance condition. Implementation and ongoing reviews follow only if they are justified.

Entry engagement

from £2,500

AI Opportunity Sprint

Find the workflows worth changing, price them honestly, and pick a credible first project.

Done when: The sponsor can make a go/no-go decision on the first project and has appointed an owner.

See scope & outputs →

Entry engagement

from £6,000

Team Workflow Activation

Turn licences you already pay for into a few repeatable workflows your team actually uses.

Done when: Staff can run the agreed workflows with the required review step, and the follow-up measurement has been shared with the sponsor.

See scope & outputs →

Entry engagement

from £4,000

Pilot Readiness Review

Find out what is actually blocking your AI pilot from reaching staff — and the smallest fix that would unblock it.

Done when: The buyer understands what blocks deployment, the next investment required, and the evidence that would justify it.

See scope & outputs →

What a deliverable looks like

An Opportunity Sprint ends with a brief like this for the recommended first project — written so you can take it to any supplier, including us.

Illustrative excerpt — not a client deliverable.

# Brief: Monthly client performance packs

Owner: Head of Client Operations

Volume: 40 packs/month · ~6 h each

Recommendation: AI-assisted drafting with analyst review; fix the data export first

Not recommended: autonomous agent; custom model

## Acceptance

- ≥ 95% of figures traceable to source

- Analyst review ≤ 90 min per pack

- No client data leaves the approved tenant

## Value (base case)

- 150 h/month released → reallocated to client reviews

- Cash saving: £0 unless hiring is avoided

## Open questions

- Who signs off the data-flow review?

Free decision tools

Get a useful answer before you talk to anyone

Each tool gives you the full result on screen, with no sign-up. Copy it, download it, or ask for an expert review.

Open source · free · 10 languages

Two playbooks, one guide

The reference behind every recommendation. Start with the GenAI foundation, then master agentic AI. Apache 2.0, downloadable as PDF.

Evidence & methods

Honest numbers, or none

We separate vendor claims from test results, hours released from cash saved, and one engagement from an industry benchmark. Case studies appear only with the client's permission.

How we measure outcomes →
Hours released are not cash savedIllustrative bars: effort before the change, effort after including review time, and how the released hours split into cash realised and capacity that is not cash.BeforeAfterReleased+ reviewcash realisednot cashIllustrative — not client data
  • Baseline first. Measure today's effort and quality before anything changes.
  • Acceptance up front. Pass/fail criteria are written into the scope.
  • Running cost counts. Review time, licences, support and change.
  • “Stop” is an outcome. No custom AI is a valid, often cheaper result.

Packt

AI for Everyday Automation

7 AI workflows to save hours at work

Dipankar Sarkar

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7 AI Workflows to Save Hours at Work Every Week · Packt Publishing · June 2026

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Frequently asked questions

What is Generative AI?

Generative AI is a class of artificial intelligence systems that create new, original content — text, images, code, or data — based on patterns learned from training data. Unlike traditional AI that analyzes and predicts, Generative AI produces novel output that closely mimics human-created content.

What is agentic AI?

Agentic AI is an AI system built around an autonomous agent loop: the model receives a goal, reasons about the next step, takes an action (calling a tool, searching, writing code), observes the result, and repeats until the goal is met. Unlike a single prompt–response exchange, an agent runs over many cycles, maintains state, and can recover from failures.

What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard for exposing tools, resources, and prompts to AI applications. Open-sourced by Anthropic in 2024, it lets any AI model discover and call external tools uniformly — so you write the integration once and use it across all agents and models.

How do businesses implement Generative AI?

Successful GenAI implementation starts with identifying high-impact use cases, structuring clean data, building internal proofs-of-concept, measuring ROI, and ensuring security and regulatory compliance. The GenAI Playbook walks through each step with practical examples across five phases.

How do I secure AI agents in production?

Secure AI agents by treating tool output as untrusted (defense against prompt injection), scoping tools per task with allowlists, requiring human approval for destructive actions, validating tool arguments, rate-limiting, isolating credentials, and logging every tool call for audit.

What are the limitations of Generative AI?

Generative AI can hallucinate, struggle with deterministic tasks, and raise data-privacy and compliance risks. Some workloads — precise calculations, regulated decisions, or tasks requiring guaranteed accuracy — are better served by traditional automation. Agents add scaffolding (planning, tool-use, self-check) that contains hallucination but doesn't eliminate it.

Disclosure:Paid engagements are contracted and delivered by Neul Labs, which Dipankar Sarkar founded and leads. Playbook recommendations stay vendor-agnostic, and we do not publish supplier rankings.