In one month this year I watched people argue about four different agent tools, two model releases and a pricing change. Meanwhile the owners getting value from AI were doing something boring: one problem, one tool, written-down process.
What I tell owners
- Pin the problem before you pick the tool. 'Reply to inquiries in under 15 minutes' is a problem. 'We need an agent' is not.
- Start with what you already pay for. Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and your booking tool can do more than most people use.
- Write the process down. A clear checklist, a prompt and an approval step outlive any model.
- Pick one assistant for the team and learn it properly. Switching every month resets everyone to zero.
Models change every month. A written process keeps working.
When a custom agent is worth it
When the job happens at hours nobody is working, across several inboxes, or hundreds of times a day, training a person to use a chatbot will not reach it. That is when a custom build earns its cost, and only with the failsafes written down first.
The prompt library is organized by what you are trying to get done, not by which model is fashionable. Most prompts work on any of them.