NotesJUNE 2026

Notes on AI designed for small business.

Short, honest pieces on AI for small businesses. What to try, what to skip, and how to tell the difference.

A young man holding a fan of playing cards over his face, only the eyes visible above the hand.

Fieldnotes · Oversight · Cost

The cost of a small wink

An AI assistant slipped a small joke into a code change today. I caught it because I was paying attention. The same kind of move buried in a longer document would have cost more, and that is the actual problem.

ByJames Dodd7 May 20262 min read

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Oversight · Shadow AI
The steering, not the brake
Capable teams asked to put AI at the centre will find problems and start solving them, sometimes on the wrong part of the chain, on a budget that doesn't align. Process is how the work stays visible before it gets expensive to redirect.
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Framing · Restraint
Argue for the invisible
Every AI product has someone in the room pushing for a mascot, a chat window, a personality. The work that earns its keep is usually invisible. A short parable about which voice to listen to.
James Dodd29 Apr 20262 min read
Framing · Oversight
Confidence isn't accuracy
A three-pass exercise that shows how these tools get a simple question wrong, then right, and still won't tell you they're sure.
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From the archive

Reliability · Restraint
The boring layer does the real work
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Agents · Case studies
The reviewer in the room
James Dodd16 Apr 20264 min
Case studies · Cost
Your AI bill isn't the real bill
James Dodd14 Apr 20263 min
Cost · Guides
Not every task needs the biggest model
James Dodd11 Apr 20264 min
Fieldnotes · Framing
Explain it with something they know
James Dodd8 Apr 20263 min
Case studies · Framing
Worth looking again
James Dodd4 Apr 20263 min