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Free starter guide · Novice · £0 to start

Your first AI agent in an afternoon

A plain-English guide for small businesses: what AI can actually do for you, which job to give it first, and how to stay safe doing it. No hype, no jargon.

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Cover of the AgentFocus starter guide: Your first AI agent in an afternoon

What's inside

Four short sections, one afternoon.

  1. 01

    Three kinds of AI help

    Chat assistant, automation or agent: what each one does, and which needs the most oversight.

  2. 02

    The 5-question job picker

    Weekly? Over 15 minutes? Can the steps be written down? Cheap to get wrong? Can a human check it? Five yeses means it's a good first job.

  3. 03

    Five safe first jobs

    From filing emailed invoices to logging form entries, each with a free option to start on.

  4. 04

    A UK safety checklist

    Draft, don't send, for the first month. Narrowest permissions. Nothing sensitive pasted in (UK GDPR). One person checks it weekly. Know how to switch it off.

Why you can trust it

  • Researched from the vendors' own pages. Checked 17 Oct 2026.
  • Playbook #1 was tested hands-on on 17 Oct 2026: under 10 minutes end to end, on Zapier's free plan.
  • No affiliate links in this guide.

Who it's for

For

You've used ChatGPT-style chat but never set up an automation or an agent, and you've got one boring job you'd love to stop doing.

Not for

Developers who want code, or anyone looking for an AI to make payments or email customers without a human checking first. We don't recommend that for a first job.