AI Beyond The Hype, Part 2: From Workflows to Intelligent Systems
Build what you saw on stage.
Six playbooks and a bonus. Each one comes with a step-by-step guide and a workflow you can download, already matched to the tools your business uses. About fifteen minutes each, no coding.
- Pick your setupChoose your email, team chat, and AI provider in the Your setup panel: on the left, or under Setup and lessons on a phone. Every guide and download changes to match.
- Set up your workbench onceA free n8n account, an AI key with a spending cap, and a test inbox. Twenty minutes, one time.
- Work through the playbooksCheck off steps as you go. Your progress stays in this browser, so you can stop and come back.
Everything here uses Pinelands Heating and Air, the fictional company from the talk. Its handbook, customers, and messages are made up, so you can practice without touching real customer data. When a playbook works for Pinelands, the last step shows you how to point it at your own business.
The playbooks
Set up your workbench
Accounts, keys, and a safe test inbox. Do this first.
20 minNot started Playbook 1Your First Assistant
A contact form the AI sorts and drafts replies for. You will break it, then fix it with one sentence.
15 minNot started Playbook 2Give It Your Handbook
A chat assistant that answers only from your company handbook, cites the section, and admits what it does not know.
15 minNot started Playbook 3The Night Shift
The inbox gets read all night. Emergencies page a person at once. Every reply waits for a human to approve.
20 minNot started Playbook 4Meet the Agent
Give it one sentence and three tools, and watch it choose its own steps. It can draft, never send.
15 minNot started Playbook 5Plug It In
Turn your handbook assistant into a plug that Claude or ChatGPT can use, with MCP.
15 minNot started Playbook 6Hire a Team
A manager AI with a researcher, a writer, and a checker that catches a $4,776 mistake before a person sees the quote.
15 minNot started BonusBlow the Whistle
Send your Night Shift a booby-trapped email, watch what happens, and add a guard. A preview of Part 3.
15 minNot startedNot going to build it yourself?
Every playbook opens with a short For leaders box: what it changes in a business, the number to watch, and the risk to manage. Read those six boxes and the decision guide, and you will know which of these belongs in your company and what to ask whoever builds it.
What you need
| Item | Why | Cost to start |
|---|---|---|
| An n8n account | Where the workflows run. Cloud trial or your own server. | Free trial |
| An AI key from OpenRouter | The model that reads, sorts, and writes. | A few dollars, with a cap you set |
| A test mailbox on Microsoft 365 (Outlook) | Playbooks 3, 4, and the bonus read email. Never practice on a real inbox. | Free |
| A test channel in Microsoft Teams | Where drafts, flags, and approvals show up. | Free |