AI is not a genie. Treat it like a function.
Most people use AI the way they use a search box: type a question, read the answer, move on. That works for one-off curiosity. It is a bad fit for the work you repeat every week, because you re-explain the context every time and never build anything you can trust.
A small assistant is different. It is one narrow task, wired up once, with a fixed input and a fixed output shape. You run it, check it, improve it. After a few iterations it stops being a demo and starts pulling real weight.
Here is how to build one without drowning in frameworks.
Start narrow: one task, one input, one output
