AIX Automation Lab — InsightsField notes on building AI agents, workflow automation, and RAG for SMBs and public-sector teams — from operators in the Bay Area.https://aixautomationlabs.com/en-usThe first 90 days of AI in an understaffed city IT departmenthttps://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/municipal-ai-first-90-days/https://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/municipal-ai-first-90-days/A 90-day AI plan for city IT: what to ship first, what it actually costs, what to tell the council, and what the CPRA means for your prompts.Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhat an AI agent actually is — and isn't — for an SMBhttps://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/what-is-an-ai-agent-for-smbs/https://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/what-is-an-ai-agent-for-smbs/A plain-English definition of AI agents for small business, the three-signal test for when to build one, and when an automation is the smarter buy.Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTn8n vs Zapier vs custom: when each automation winshttps://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/n8n-vs-zapier-vs-custom/https://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/n8n-vs-zapier-vs-custom/An operator's n8n vs Zapier vs custom decision guide for SMB and public-sector ops — cost, data residency, and who owns it after the consultant leaves.Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTRAG for organizations with under 1,000 documentshttps://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/rag-for-small-business/https://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/rag-for-small-business/An honest guide to RAG for small business: when retrieval-augmented generation is worth building under 1,000 documents, and when good search wins.Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTWe built AVA. Here's the architecture.https://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/how-we-built-ava-architecture/https://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/how-we-built-ava-architecture/How we architected AVA, the AI assistant our MSP runs on Autotask — the retrieval layer, the bounded action tools, the eval harness, and the cost controls.Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTMicrosoft Bookings + AI: what's actually possiblehttps://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/microsoft-bookings-ai-automation/https://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/microsoft-bookings-ai-automation/An operator's guide to adding AI and automation around Microsoft Bookings — intake triage, reminders, routing, Power Automate, and what's still overhyped.Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTAutotask + AI: the integration patterns we shiphttps://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/autotask-ai-integration-patterns/https://aixautomationlabs.com/insights/autotask-ai-integration-patterns/Autotask AI integration for MSPs: ticket triage, RAG over ticket history, drafted notes, time-entry help, and the REST API realities behind it all.Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT