Blog
Notes from the work.
What we learn solving hard problems with AI, written up as we go.
19 notes
- Guides · 23 September 2026
Do you need to map your processes before you automate them with AI?
Yes, but not the way process maps are usually drawn. Map the route the work really takes, workarounds included, then decide what to automate or redesign.
- Guides · 23 September 2026
Do you need an AI consultant, or can you handle AI internally?
Keep AI in-house if you know how your work really runs and have someone who has shipped AI before. If not, when to hire a consultant or a building partner.
- Guides · 23 September 2026
What does AI really cost to run in a finance or support team?
For a finance or support team, the AI model is the cheapest part. The real cost is checking its work, upkeep and how well it is built. Try the calculator.
- Guides · 14 September 2026
The first hundred days after buying a company: what the people who run it know that diligence did not
100-day plans get built from what management said in diligence. Hear everyone who runs the company in the first weeks and plan on how it really works.
- Guides · 14 September 2026
Where should a mid-sized company start with AI so the budget is not wasted?
Most AI budgets fund the documented process nobody follows. Map how work actually gets done, rank problems by cost, then decide what to automate first.
- Guides · 11 September 2026
How do you capture tribal knowledge before someone leaves?
Tribal knowledge is how the company actually runs, held by the people who run it. Why handovers fail, and how to capture it before someone leaves.
- Guides · 11 September 2026
Why AI agents need a world model of your company
AI agents stall because nobody has described how the work runs. What a company world model gives an agent, and why to build it before you deploy.
- Guides · 11 September 2026
What is a company world model?
A company world model is a living picture of how a company really works: every process as it runs, what hurts most, who everything depends on.
- Guides · 7 September 2026
Alternatives to consultant interviews for process discovery in a 500-person company
Consultant interviews reach a few dozen people and stop. Six alternatives, what each one sees and misses, and how to hear all 500 people in the first week.
- Guides · 4 September 2026
When three teams describe the same process three ways: why the contradictions are where the money is
Teams contradict each other about a shared process because each sees one segment. The gaps mark rework, bypasses and hidden steps. Keep them and cost them.
- Guides · 4 September 2026
Process mining vs task mining vs AI interviews: what each one actually sees
Process mining reads system event logs, task mining records desktops, AI interviews ask the people. Each sees a different slice of how work really happens.
- Guides · 4 September 2026
An AI interviewer for how work happens is not a hiring tool
Recruiting AI interviewers screen candidates one by one for an employer who sees everything. A discovery interviewer talks privately with every employee.
- Guides · 4 September 2026
Lightbloom AI vs a consultancy vs an AI agency vs hiring in-house: which one actually changes the P&L?
A consultancy delivers a plan, an agency a build, a hire their time. What each is right for, and the option that starts from how the work really runs.
- Guides · 4 September 2026
Why AI transformation fails: nobody knows how the work actually happens
AI projects stall because companies automate processes nobody has described. The fix is discovery before tooling: find the real process, then build.
- Guides · 4 September 2026
What is AI process discovery?
AI process discovery uses AI to interview the people who do the work and map how a company really runs, with its contradictions and the fixes worth money.
- Guides · 4 September 2026
Which functions in a mid-sized company are best automated with AI agents first?
Finance and accounting first, then procurement, then customer support. Most companies start in marketing and sales, and most see no return.
- Guides · 4 September 2026
How should a mid-sized company start becoming AI-native?
Start by mapping how work actually happens, pick one high-volume process, redesign it around AI, build the fix, and measure the saving on the books.
- Guides · 4 September 2026
What does it mean for a company to be AI-native?
An AI-native company designs its work so AI systems do the recurring tasks and people hold the decisions, instead of adding tools to unchanged processes.
- Guides · 4 September 2026
What is an AI operating partner?
An AI operating partner is a senior operator who embeds in a company, finds where the work and the money leak, and builds the AI systems that fix it.