Modelling our own use of AI tools

Written by Alec Fearon on 24 June 2025 in Anapoly Lab Notes
Transparency label: AI-heavy

Purpose of experiment

To identify and configure an AI toolkit for Anapoly AI Labs that credibly models the use of general-purpose AI tools in a small consultancy setting.

Author and date

Alec Fearon, 24 June 2025

Participants

Alec Fearon, with Ray Holland and Dennis Silverwood in email consultation
ChatGPT-4o

Lab configuration and setup

This setup models a real-world micro-consultancy with three collaborators. It assumes limited budget, modest technical support, and a practical orientation. We aim to reflect the toolkit choices we might recommend to participants in Anapoly AI Labs sessions.

Preamble

If Anapoly AI Labs is to be a credible venture, we believe it must model the behaviour it explores. That means our own internal work should demonstrate how small teams or sole traders might use AI tools in everyday tasks – writing, research, analysis, and communication – not just talk about it. This lab note outlines our proposed working configuration.

Procedure

We identified common functions we ourselves perform (and expect others will want to model), for example:

Writing, summarising, and critiquing text
Researching topics and checking facts
Extracting and organising information from documents
Sharing and collaborating on files
Managing project knowledge

We then selected tools that:

Are available off the shelf
Require no specialist training
Are affordable on a small-business budget
Can be configured and used transparently

Findings

Core tools selected

Function	Tool	Licence	Notes
Writing & prompting	ChatGPT Team	£25–30/m/user	Main workspace for drafting, reasoning, editing
Search & fact-checking	Perplexity Pro	$20/m/user	Fast, source-aware, good for validating facts
Document interrogation	NotebookLM	Free (for now)	Project libraries, good with PDFs and notes
Office apps	MS 365 or Google	£5–15/m/user	Matches common small business setups
Visual inputs	ChatGPT Vision	Included with ChatGPT	Used for images, scans, and screenshots

Discussion of findings

This configuration balances affordability, realism, and capability. We expect participants in Anapoly AI Labs to have similar access to these tools, or to be able to get it. By using these tools ourselves in Anapoly’s day-to-day running, we:

Gain first hand experience to share
Create reusable examples from real work
Expose gaps, workarounds, and lessons worth documenting

We considered whether personal licences could be shared during lab sessions. Technically, they can’t: individual ChatGPT and Perplexity licences are for single-user use. While enforcement is unlikely, we’ve chosen to adopt the position that participants should bring their own their own AI tools – free or paid – to lab sessions as part of the learning experience. This avoids ambiguity about licencing and sets the ethical standard we want to maintain.

Conclusions

This toolkit would enable us to model our own small-business operations, treating Anapoly itself as one of the lab setups. That would reinforce our stance: we don’t claim to be AI experts; we’re practitioners asking the questions small businesses wish they had time to ask, and showing what happens when you do.

Recommendations

Configure project workspaces in ChatGPT Team to reflect different lab contexts
Maintain prompt libraries and reasoning trails
Make costs, configurations, and limitations explicit in diary and lab notes
Evaluate whether to add AI-enhanced spreadsheet or knowledge tools (e.g. Notion, Obsidian) in future iterations

Glossary

ChatGPT Team – OpenAI’s paid workspace version of ChatGPT, allowing collaboration, custom GPTs, and project folders.
NotebookLM – A Google tool for working with uploaded documents using AI, currently free.
Perplexity Pro – A subscription AI assistant known for showing sources.
Vision input – The ability to upload images (photos, scans) and have the AI interpret them.