AI has taken over my back office this year

This year I have automated my project finances and reporting, sorted my invoicing, built an app, rebuilt one website and had AI build another from scratch, supported some small developers with road-blocks, and kept SANZ’s submissions going out the door. All while running a full time business.

I am working at a power level with Claude. It is a daily tool embedded throughout my businesses and SANZ advocacy, and the gap between people who get that and people who don’t is enormous.

Show someone what is possible and you get one of two reactions. Eyes light up and they start asking their own “what if” questions. Or they stay parked in MS-DOS mode, half suspicious of the whole thing. The difference between the two is not small.

The newest arm for me is website development and automation, well past basic WordPress MCP integrations. I am working with VanAir Digital on a full rebuild of the SANZ advocacy website (they have volunteered their time to SANZ), soon to go live, and engaging experts to prepare short form video, which is powering a social media campaign SANZ is running off the back of some generous member contributions. My only real video experience before this was Riverside, so this is a genuine skill I am experiencing and learning via others. It is something SANZ may be able to bring in-house.

The WordPress integration on its own has changed how I post. What used to be copy, format, upload, fix the formatting again, is now one step. That sounds small. It isn’t, when you are running a blog alongside two businesses and an advocacy campaign.

This week I am sitting down with an engineering consultancy, a construction management group and a project management group to see how the engineering side has actually built AI into their workflow, not just talked about it. I work one way. It will be good to see how others work.

Few around me have levelled up on AI properly as yet. Those who take even a half step are already ahead. Keep going.