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Your first AI agent in an afternoon. A plain-English path for novices: what agents are, what they cost and your first build.

NoviceTime: An afternoonCost: £0 to start

If you've used ChatGPT-style chat but never set up an automation or an agent, this page is for you.

Prefer it as a guide you can keep? Get the free starter guide: three kinds of AI help, a 5-question job picker, five safe first jobs and a UK safety checklist.

1. Learn three words

Least autonomy

Chat assistant

You ask and it answers. Nothing happens unless you're there.

Fixed rules

Automation

“When X happens, do Y”, following fixed rules (Zapier, Make, n8n).

Most autonomy

Agent

An AI that decides which steps to take towards a goal, using tools you connect it to. It's more flexible, and it needs more oversight.

2. Pick one boring, repeated job

Good first jobs are low-risk and happen every week: filing attachments, drafting (not sending) replies, summarising reading. Avoid anything that pays money, deletes data or emails customers without you checking first.

Good first jobs

Filing attachments · drafting (not sending) replies · summarising reading

Avoid for now

Anything that pays money, deletes data or emails customers without you checking first

3. Do your first build

  1. Email invoices to Dropbox (under 10 minutes, free, tested)

  2. Draft customer replies

  3. Ready for more? Weekly research brief

4. Keep a human in the loop

For your first month, have the AI draft while you approve. Only take yourself out of a step once it's been right many times in a row.

AI draftsYou approveIt goes out