I've spent over twenty years delivering digital work. Websites, campaigns, platforms and products for brands like Warner Bros, Sony Music, BMW and Premier Inn, and for a lot of smaller businesses whose names you won't know but whose problems look remarkably similar.
The last twelve months have been different. Not because the work changed, but because the way I can deliver it did. Here's an honest account of what that looked like, what I've learned, and what I think it means if you run a business and buy web or marketing work.
Key takeaways
- What got faster: building software, analysing site data, and producing research, content and visuals at a consistent standard.
- What didn't: judgement about what matters, restraint about what to take on, and the trust that a real person is accountable.
- If you're buying web or marketing work: pay for thinking rather than typing, be wary of "AI" as the headline, and act on your own data.
What I've actually built
In the past year I've designed, built and launched AuditCrow, a website audit and opportunity tool that went live in October 2026. It runs on a modern stack (Next.js, Supabase, Stripe, DataForSEO, Firecrawl, background job orchestration) and I built it largely on my own, with AI coding tools doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
Alongside that I've owned the web front end for a first-party data product I co-own with three partners. I've built a travel booking platform for a destination in Finnish Lapland, with a trip builder, accommodation integration and automated testing. I've run a site migration for a flooring business. And I've started a new tool that tests whether AI shopping agents can find and buy from online stores, which I'll write about separately.
Two years ago, that portfolio would have needed a small team. This year it needed one person who knew what good looked like.
What got faster
The build. Without question. Scaffolding an application, wiring up authentication and payments, writing tests, connecting APIs, fixing the dull bugs: all of it is dramatically quicker with tools like Claude Code working alongside me. Things that used to take a week take an afternoon.
Analysis got faster too. I connect AI tools directly to Search Console, Google Analytics and SEO data sources through MCP (a standard that lets AI assistants talk to other software). That means I can ask questions of a site's real performance data in plain English and get answers in minutes, rather than exporting spreadsheets for an hour first.
The bigger shift has been in creative and content work. Research, drafting, producing larger sets of visuals and video at a consistent standard, and keeping a brand's design system and guidelines in one place so every asset follows them. That used to need a designer, a copywriter and someone keeping them aligned. Now one person can hold it together, as long as they know what the standard is.
I've used the same tools to run and improve my own product. AuditCrow audits its own website, and I fix what it finds. Scheduled tasks pull the server logs and have AI review them for patterns and errors, so issues surface early rather than when someone complains. It's the approach I'd bring to any client site: set the checks up once, then let them run.
What didn't get faster
Judgement. Knowing which of fifty possible improvements actually matters for this business, this quarter, with this budget. AI will happily produce a list of fifty. It won't tell you that forty-five of them are noise.
Restraint didn't get easier either. When building is this quick, it's tempting to add features nobody asked for, or go deeper than the job needs. For a one-person consultancy that's a real risk: the tools let you take on more, which is exactly when you need to be most careful about what you take on.
And breadth isn't the same as depth. AI makes it look easy to step into another discipline, whether that's design, video or copy. To an untrained eye the result can look finished. But something can look good and miss the mark, and something can work well and have no audience. Knowing the difference is what experience is for.
And trust didn't get faster. Clients still want to know a real person with real experience is accountable for the outcome.
What this means if you're buying web or marketing work
Three things I'd tell any small business owner right now.
- Pay for thinking, not typing. If a supplier quotes you the same number of days for a build as they would have three years ago, ask why. The mechanical parts of the work have got much cheaper. The judgement hasn't, and that's what's worth paying for. (I've written separately about what a website really costs in the UK.)
- Be wary of anyone leading with "AI". The useful question is never "how do we use AI?" It's "what's slowing this business down, and what's the simplest fix?" Sometimes that's an automation. Often it's a clearer website, a fixed contact form or a properly set up Google Business Profile.
- Act on your data. The gap between businesses that act on their data and those that don't is widening. The tools to understand what your website is doing are cheaper and easier than ever. Most businesses still aren't looking.
Where 4D Services sits now
That's why I've repositioned 4D Services around web and marketing consulting and delivery for small and mid-sized UK businesses, with AI and automation used where they genuinely earn their place rather than as the headline. New websites and website resets, analytics and reporting, marketing support, and practical automation, delivered by someone who has done this for two decades and now does it faster.
If you've got a website that isn't pulling its weight, or a process that eats hours every week, there are two easy ways to start. Get in touch for a free, no-pressure conversation about what you need. I'd love to hear your requirements. Or, if you already know there's work to do, the £950 Scoping Pack maps out what needs doing, in what order, and what it should cost.
