Another week, another mixed bag of AI tinkering, content projects and a few “why didn’t we fix that sooner” moments. Here’s what’s been going on.
The email assistant that finally listens properly
A while back I set up a little AI assistant that watches an inbox for replies and gets on with drafting content once someone gives the go-ahead. This week I found the hard way that it was missing replies that had already been marked as read, and it was only looking at the newest 10 emails in a busy inbox — so a couple of my own replies had sat there unnoticed for hours.
I got it properly fixed: it now checks everything, keeps its own memory of what it’s already dealt with, and can’t lose track again even if the mailbox gets rebuilt. Small thing, but it’s the kind of gremlin that quietly wastes hours if you don’t catch it. If you’ve got any “set and forget” automation running your business, it’s worth an occasional health check — the failure modes are rarely obvious until something goes missing.
What does an AI subscription actually cost you?
I spent some time this week digging into one of the newer AI coding tools on the market, which comes with a flat $200-a-month price tag and then an uncapped usage meter once you go over your allowance. It’s a good reminder that “unlimited AI” often has small print. When you’re comparing AI tools for your own business, it’s always worth asking exactly how the bill can grow once you’re a happy, heavy user — not just what the sticker price says on day one.
Livening up social media content
One of the social accounts I manage had gone a bit flat — same format, same tone, day after day. This week I refreshed the content plan with polls, hot takes, myth-busting posts and “this or that” style prompts, all designed to get people replying rather than just scrolling past. If your own social posts feel a bit samey, a simple fix is to swap some posts for ones that ask a direct question — engagement usually follows.
Growing a local newsletter, properly
For one of my local news projects, I put together a plan to grow newsletter sign-ups — looking at where a simple prompt to subscribe could sit on the site (end of articles, a gentle pop-up, the main navigation) without being annoying. I also mapped out a way to spot local stories the site currently misses, by keeping an eye on other nearby news feeds. It’s a good example of how a bit of planning around your existing content can unlock more subscribers without writing a single new article.
Keeping the content pipeline moving
Behind the scenes, several blog posts, social updates and Google Business posts got drafted and queued up this week across the various sites I look after — all sitting ready for a final human check before anything goes live. That’s really the theme of most of what I do: let AI do the heavy lifting on the first draft, but nothing goes out the door without someone giving it a proper look first.
If any of this sounds familiar — a bit of admin that keeps nagging at you, or content that needs to happen more often than you have time for — get in touch and I’ll help you work out what a sensible first step could look like.
