The business of AI

Build, buy or skip?

A simple way to decide whether a task needs a new tool at all.

5 min readPlain English

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In one sentence

Before you buy or build an AI tool, check whether the task is worth changing at all and whether the assistant you already have can do it.

Think of it like…

It’s like sorting out a cluttered storeroom. Sometimes a cleanup is enough, sometimes you buy ready-made shelving, and only now and then do you pay a carpenter to build something to measure.

How it works

Run the task through four checks, in order. Many tasks stop at the first or second.

1Skip?If the task is rare, quick or doesn’t matter much, leave it as it is. Not everything needs a tool.
2Use what you haveTry the assistant you already pay for, with a clear prompt or saved instructions, for a week. Often that’s enough.
3BuyIf it needs to run on its own or plug into your other systems, look for a product built for that job, and trial it on your real cases.
4BuildOnly when nothing fits and the task is central to how you work: connect a form, a spreadsheet and an assistant with an automation tool, or brief a developer.

Whichever you choose, decide up front how you’ll judge it and who approves its output.

Good at

Frequent, repetitive tasks with a clear right answer
Work that already follows written steps
Jobs where a mistake is cheap and easy to spot

Bad at

Rare or one-off jobs
Tasks nobody agrees how to do yet
Work where every case is an exception

Where you’ll see it at work

Skip: the answer was a prompt. A plumbing firm wanted a tool for job follow-ups. Saved instructions in the assistant it already pays for did the job.
Buy: a busy shared inbox. An online shop trials a help-desk tool with AI drafting built in, on last month’s real emails, before signing up.
Build: quotes only you can price. A print shop’s quotes follow its own rules, so it links a form, a spreadsheet and an assistant, and a person approves every quote.

Myth vs reality

Myth: “We need a custom AI built for our business.”

Reality: Many small-business tasks are handled well by the assistant you already have, given clear instructions and your own examples. Build only when a task is frequent, specific to you and worth maintaining.