Twenty years of shipping web work, now bringing the same implementation rigour to AI. I speak vendor — Anthropic, OpenAI, Zapier, Make, n8n — so you don't have to. I close the gap between "I tried ChatGPT once" and "AI quietly runs three of my workflows."
From £150 audits to £15k+ custom builds. Real shipped work. Plain English throughout.
Hi, I'm David. For two decades I've been the developer behind e-commerce stores, business websites, custom CMS work, and now agentic AI tools that run in production for real customers. I've watched small and growing businesses get sold AI tools they don't need and AI strategies they can't use.
What you actually need is the same shipping discipline I brought to web work, applied to AI — someone who can talk to the tool vendors in their own language and then explain it back to you in plain English. Whether that's a single Zapier flow, a custom internal tool, or a proper RAG pipeline behind your customer support.
"I sit between you and the AI chaos. You describe the boring thing — or the bigger build. I find the smallest path that actually works."
Built & Running
A few examples of AI work that's already shipped and earning its keep. Most of what I do lives behind the scenes — these are the bits I can show.
Number 1 Plates · Magento
Claude-driven workflow drafts product descriptions from spec sheets, with the existing tone-of-voice baked in. Catalogue updates that used to take days now take minutes.
Thousands of SKUs across 7+ sites · copywriter hours back
Number 1 Plates · Deploy gate
An AI agent walks through critical checkout journeys before every deploy, flags broken flows before customers see them. Now being productised as WebCopilot UX Tester.
Catches regressions automated tests miss · used as a release gate
Number 1 Plates · Support ops
Inbound support tickets routed by intent, sentiment, and urgency before they reach a human. Tier-1 questions get an AI-drafted reply for review; everything else escalates immediately.
Tier-1 response time down from hours to minutes
Most of my AI work runs inside customer businesses I can't name publicly. Happy to share more under NDA in a discovery call.
The Problem
You can't tell signal from hype. The tools change every week. McKinsey costs millions. Agencies build something then disappear. ChatGPT alone doesn't fit your actual workflow. So you keep putting it off — and keep losing the same three hours a week to the same boring tasks.
✗ Tool sprawl
OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Zapier, Make, n8n, Airtable — six logos, twelve pricing pages, no obvious answer.
✗ Hype-fatigue
Every LinkedIn post promises AI will 10× your business. Most of it is selling courses.
✗ No implementation help
YouTube tells you what's possible. Nobody helps you actually wire it up to your business.
✗ No one to call when it breaks
Build-and-vanish agencies leave you with software you can't maintain. Tool updates silently break things.
Real Situations
Situation 01
You write the same quote five times a week
Inbound enquiry → quote draft. Same structure every time. AI can write the first draft from the email in seconds.
Situation 02
Your inbox runs your day
Triage, summarise, draft replies, escalate. Get your morning hour back.
Situation 03
Tier-1 customer support eats half your week
The same five questions. AI answers them, escalates the rest, you only see the interesting ones.
Situation 04
You're doing the accountant's job for them
Pre-categorising Stripe and Xero transactions before they get touched. AI can do the first pass.
What I Do
I'm not selling you a platform. I'm not building you a dashboard you'll never log into. I'm not going to disappear after handover.
I find your three most boring recurring tasks. I build the smallest AI workflow that removes them. I keep it working as the tools change.
I audit how you actually work
A 60-min call. I find the recurring tasks worth automating and rank them by hours saved per £ spent.
I build the smallest workflow that works
No big platform rollouts. Zapier, Make, n8n, Claude, GPT, Airtable — whatever fits the job.
I hand it over, properly documented
You can run it without me. The workflows live in your tools, under your accounts, with your data.
I keep it working as tools change
The AI landscape moves weekly. Retainer customers get monthly tune-ups so things don't quietly break.
Works with what you already have
Claude, GPT, Gemini, Zapier, Make, n8n, Airtable, Notion, Google Workspace, Stripe, Xero, HubSpot, Slack, WhatsApp Business — and whatever else you're running. No big migration. No new tools you didn't ask for.
How It Works
Most engagements start with the £150 audit and decide from there.
01 · AUDIT
I learn how your business actually runs. You get back a short written report ranking 5-10 AI opportunities by hours saved per £ spent. Yours to keep, no obligation to buy anything else.
02 · BUILD
From the audit, you pick the workflow that has the best payback. Fixed quote, fixed scope, delivered and documented. £350-£1,500 depending on complexity.
03 · MAINTAIN
If you want me on hand to add more workflows, keep things running, and be your first call when the AI landscape changes — that's the retainer. From £199/mo, cancel anytime.
How I handle change
The AI landscape moves every quarter. Models get deprecated, pricing changes, APIs break. Here's how I make sure that's not your problem.
01 · The 60-Day Stability Window
If Anthropic, OpenAI, Zapier, or anything else upstream changes in a way that breaks what I built — within 60 days of handover I fix it. No invoice, no negotiation. Built into every build price.
02 · The Architect's Note
Every build ships with a short written note: what this depends on, what's most likely to change, and roughly what a rebuild would cost if a critical vendor disappears. No surprises six months later.
03 · Retainer = rolling cover
Retainer customers don't have a 60-day window — they have continuous tool-change protection. Tune-ups and minor rebuilds come out of your monthly hour bucket. Major rebuilds get quoted separately so there are no surprises.
04 · Long-Life Bolt-On
For builds that need to last without you thinking about them, add a 12-month maintenance bolt-on at delivery (priced at 20–30% of the build cost). I hold the rebuild risk for a year.
Pricing
Most engagements start at the audit and graduate from there. Nothing locks you in.
AI Audit
60-min call + written report ranking AI opportunities for your business. Yours to keep.
Workflow Build
Fixed-price delivery of one AI workflow. Zapier, Make, n8n territory. Scoped, built, documented.
Custom Build
When a no-code workflow won't cut it. Custom code, internal tools, proper engineering applied to AI.
Fractional Architect
Monthly retainer. Embedded help — builds, tune-ups, rolling tool-change cover, "is this real?" questions.
Tool subscriptions (Zapier, Make, OpenAI/Anthropic API, etc.) are usually billed in your name. I'll always flag what you'll be paying for before we start.
Just want to ask someone before you spend? Try Human Advisory →
The ones you'd hand to a smart intern tomorrow if you had one. I'll come back within 24 hours with a take on whether AI can help and what it'd cost.
Message sent. I'll get back to you within 24 hours.