Last night, a client’s “simple question” stopped me cold
At 10 p.m., I read the client’s six-page brief three times and still wasn’t sure which version to revise first. My old routine was to open three documents, copy information between them, then force out a reply.
If this sounds familiar, I want to say one thing first: it wasn’t that I wasn’t smart enough. When the material piles up, people naturally miss earlier constraints. I’ve been there too. I once spent two hours producing a proposal the client didn’t want to see.
Anthropic’s AI recently tackled a complex reasoning puzzle
According to The Neuron, Anthropic’s AI recently broke through a complex puzzle. The important part wasn’t that it “got the answer right,” but that it could check scattered conditions step by step and produce a conclusion I could inspect.
I know an independent developer, Lin Yue, who does website redesigns. She received a redesign brief from a pet-shop owner while working from a shared office in Hangzhou. She used to mark up every page manually. Now she gives the AI the campaign rules, client feedback and old pages, then asks it to list contradictions and missing details before she reviews them. Lin Yue says the biggest change wasn’t faster copywriting. It was one less round of rework.
I tried replicating this today on a small budget
The rough cost is RMB 20-100 per month for a model subscription, plus 30-60 minutes to get comfortable with prompting. The technical barrier is low: copy text and check sources, with no coding required. First step: open the AI assistant I already use, start a new conversation, paste one redacted client brief, and ask it to list the “known conditions, contradictions, missing information and three questions I should ask first.”
I remove names, phone numbers, account details and other identifying information from client files before uploading them. I also check every AI conclusion rather than sending it straight to the client. This isn’t essential for everyone. If your requirements are simple, a manual checklist may be faster, and there’s no urgency to test it now.
Match it to my work stage, without trying to do everything at once
If I’m just starting: I’d practice with one real brief of my own and limit the task to “help me clarify the questions.” I wouldn’t rush into a complex workflow.
If I already have one or two clients: I’d create a fixed template—the client’s original words, known conditions, conflicts and next-step questions—and have the AI return every response in the same format.
If I’m scaling: I’d consider connecting repetitive organization work to an automation tool, but I’d keep human review in place so unchecked replies never go straight to clients.
Which task would I most want AI to take over: reading a brief, drafting a proposal or following up with clients? I’m still figuring out which one saves the most time.