ISSUE #5 · SCEPTICAL ABOUT AI? SO ARE WE. · 3 MIN READ
Morning.
So I read something last week that I love. It answers the question everyone gets stuck on... what am I actually meant to use AI for?
That's in the Monday Fix. First, Apple.
01 · THE BIG ONE
Apple's new AI helper only speaks American
What happened: on 27 October Apple announced an assistant inside Pages, Keynote and Numbers, its free versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel. It drafts text in Pages and does the sums in Numbers. Apple says it's "built on Apple models and OpenAI" (the ChatGPT company). It lands in November.
I haven't tried it, because it isn't out yet.
The UK catch: the apps stay free, but the clever bits are for Apple Creator Studio subscribers, at £12.99 a month or £129 a year. And you need a recent Apple device.
The bit nobody's reading: footnote 2 of Apple's announcement says the assistant "requires an Apple Intelligence-capable device running iOS 27... and is available in U.S. English only."
So you'd pay for a helper that works in American English, with no date for British. Apple also doesn't say where your document goes when the OpenAI part does the work (I'd want to know before a client contract goes near it).
THE SMALL PRINT VERDICT
Wait and see.
Already pay for Creator Studio? Have a play when it lands. If not, don't start paying £129 a year until it speaks British English and Apple says where your files go.
FAFF FACTOR: LOW · COST: ££ · RISK: US ENGLISH ONLY
Do this instead: paste one section of a document into free ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot and ask for a tidy-up in UK English. Take out names and client details first.
Our take: £12.99 a month for a helper that can't do British English yet? I'll wait for the version that can.
02 · HYPE WATCH
"AI saves workers a full day a week"
That's the gist of new research for Adobe Acrobat. The actual line is "nearly two-thirds of those using the technology said it was saving them up to eight hours a week."
I don't want to be a killjoy, but...
It's 2,000 UK adults, asked back in April. 68% use AI at work, and nearly two-thirds of those gave the eight-hour answer. That's fewer than half of everyone asked.
"Up to eight hours" also covers someone saving ten minutes, and the headline gives no average. As far as I can see nobody timed anything either. It's what people reckoned they saved.
Adobe sells AI tools for documents. And 20% of the same people worried about AI's accuracy. Checking its work takes time too.
Do this instead: time one job yourself, normally and then with AI, checking included. Can't think of a job? Read on.
03 · MONDAY FIX · 20 MINUTES
Find the jobs AI should do for you
In the government's AI adoption research, 71% of businesses said not having found a use for AI was holding them back.
Here's the bit I love. Dharmesh Shah's Simple AI newsletter says stop hunting for "AI use cases" and start with your own problems, in four piles:
Repeat. Same job, every week, same way. Timesheets, the stock count.
Dread. Jobs you put off because they're tedious or a bit scary. Chasing a late invoice, the VAT return.
Wish. What you'd do with a smart assistant. That customer newsletter you never send.
Firsts. Your first tender, say. Plenty of people have done it before and written it down, and AI has read what they wrote.
Start with where your own time goes. Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot:
I run a [type of business] with [number] staff. Ask me up to 10
questions, one at a time, to sort my work into four piles: Repeat
(weekly jobs done the same way), Dread (jobs I put off), Wish (jobs
I'd do with an assistant) and Firsts (things I've never done).
Then give me a table of my top 5 jobs, with how AI could help and
what I'd still need to check. UK English. Nothing that needs coding
or connecting apps together.Check anything it says about tax, law or money with gov.uk or your accountant before you act on it.
04 · QUICK BITS
Wage bill going up. From April 2027 the National Living Wage rises 50p to £13.21 an hour (gov.uk).
More room for side income. The Budget triples the trading allowance from £1,000 to £3,000 from 6 April 2027 (gov.uk).
Direct Debit for VAT, eventually. From April 2029 most firms will need a Direct Debit set up for VAT and PAYE bills (gov.uk).
ONE-CLICK POLL
Which pile would you hand to AI first?
And hit reply with the one job sitting in your Dread pile. I read every one.
Read the small print. See you next Monday.
P.S. My Wish pile? Prepping and researching before a new client meeting. That's the one I'm trying the prompt on first.
