Written by Katalis · 3 min
Start with the job you hate most.
People ask where to start with AI as if the answer were a product. It isn't. It's a chore — the one you'd describe with a sigh. Here's how to find it, and how to tell if it's actually automatable.
Written by Katalis · Updated 24 September 2026
Why the hated job is usually the right job
There's a practical reason the chore you resent is the best starting point. It's not about motivational posters. Jobs become hateful in a small business for specific reasons. They repeat endlessly. They follow the same shape every time. They interrupt real work. They pile up at the worst hours. Repetitive, rule-shaped, interruptive, after-hours — that's what AI is good at taking over. The craft you love resists automation. It's varied, human, judgement-heavy. The admin you hate invites it. So the sigh is diagnostic. Whatever you'd finish this sentence with — 'honestly, the worst part of my week is…' — that's the candidate.
What this looks like, hypothetically
These are worked examples, not case studies. I don't have customers to write about yet, and I don't invent them. Suppose you're a tradesperson: the hated job is often quoting at nine in the evening. The AI version: you speak a voice note on the drive home. A tidy quote in your format and your prices appears for you to approve. Suppose you run a salon: it's the booking messages arriving at all hours across three apps. The AI version: an assistant that answers, books into your actual calendar, and reminds people so they show up. Suppose you run a shop: it's answering the same eleven questions forever. The AI version: something on your website that knows your stock, your delivery times and your returns policy, and says so politely at 2am. Notice the pattern in all three: the AI does the repetitive shape; you keep the decisions. The quote still gets your eye before it goes. That's the right division of labour, and it's the one we build.
The honest filter: when the hated job is NOT an AI job
It needs judgement each time. If every instance is genuinely different
Pricing a complex job, handling a complaint that needs reading between lines — automation will do it badly, and badly in public.
It needs warmth. Consoling, persuading, apologising
A customer who needs a human can tell when they didn't get one.
It barely happens
A job you hate four times a year isn't worth a system. Hate it in peace.
The real problem is a decision, not a task
Sometimes 'the invoicing is a nightmare' means 'my prices are wrong'. AI automates the nightmare; it doesn't fix the pricing.
The first step costs nothing
You don't need a strategy, budget, or tool list to begin. Just one sentence: the job and how often it bothers you. Tell me at the page's bottom, and I'll say if it's automatable, what it takes, and the real cost. Or try the free Business Score. I'll check out your business and suggest where to start. If you should keep doing it by hand, I'll let you know.
Free tool · runs right here
Free Business Score
See how your business looks online — findability, website health, reviews and more — with the few fixes worth doing first.
No sign-up · instant · it’s me that runs it — the same tool, live on this site.
Describe the chore — the quoting, the phone, the inbox — and I'll tell you honestly whether it's an AI job, roughly what fixing it involves, and what it costs. If it isn't one, I'll say so.
Tell me the job →Prefer to just ask? Chat with Katalis · More from the blog