AI Tools Assessment

You know AI could save you hours every week. You just don't know where to start.

You've seen the demos. You've tried ChatGPT. But nobody has looked at your business and told you exactly which tools to use and where to begin. I can help.

Walk away with 3–7 specific tool recommendations matched to your workflows, a priority matrix, and a 4-day plan to get started.

Book a Free 15-Minute Intro Call

Any of this ring a bell?

You know AI is changing everything. You just can't figure out how it fits into your day.

You're losing hours every week to tasks you know should be faster.

Scheduling, email, invoicing, follow-ups, reports. You do them because they have to get done. But there's a voice in the back of your head saying "there has to be a better way"—and you're right.

You spent an evening on YouTube and still couldn't connect the dots.

The tutorials make everything look easy. But they're showing generic examples, not your business. You need someone who understands the difference between a demo and your actual Tuesday morning.

You subscribed to three AI newsletters and feel more confused than before.

Every week there's a new "game-changing" tool. You read the breathless headlines, bookmark the links, and never get around to trying any of them. The pile of things you should be doing with AI just keeps growing.

You bought a tool someone recommended and it sits unused.

A friend or colleague said "you have to try this." You signed up. Maybe you even paid for a few months. But connecting it to your actual work felt like a second job, so it collects dust alongside the other subscriptions you keep meaning to cancel.

You actually tried AI and got… mixed results.

You gave it a real shot. Set aside time, picked a tool, followed the steps. It kind of worked—for the demo scenario. But when you tried it on your actual work, the output was off, the setup was confusing, and you couldn't tell if the problem was the tool or you. So you moved on, half-convinced AI "isn't there yet" for your business. It is. You just didn't have the right match.

You don't need another tool. You need a translator.

In Anthropic's 80,000-person survey—the largest qualitative AI study ever conducted—the #1 thing people want from AI is professional excellence: handling routine tasks so they can focus on strategic work. But nearly 1 in 5 said AI hasn't delivered on that promise yet.

The gap isn't the technology. The tools exist. Dozens of them. They're powerful, affordable, and getting better every month.

The gap is that nobody has looked at your workflows, your calendar, and your inbox and said: "This tool. This process. This is where you start."

You don't need a developer. You don't need a course. You don't need another newsletter. You need someone who speaks both "AI" and "business" and can translate between the two.

The Offer

The AI Tools Assessment

A complete, personalized analysis of where AI can save you the most time—with specific tools, clear priorities, and a plan you can act on immediately.

Here's how it works:

Free

15-Minute Intro Call

We meet. No pitch. You tell me what's eating your time, I tell you honestly whether the assessment is a good fit. If it's not, I'll point you in the right direction anyway.

If we're a good fit, the assessment begins:

The Discovery Call

A 45-minute conversation where I pull the real problems out of your day. Not what you think you should automate—what's actually eating your time.

I'll ask you to walk me through yesterday. Where your time went. What tasks you dread but can't hand off. Where work piles up waiting on you. Your answers become the foundation of everything that follows.

The Analysis

I take everything you told me and map it against the current AI landscape. Every tool I recommend gets vetted against your specific situation—not a generic "best of" list. I identify 3–7 opportunities where existing AI tools can save you significant time, and I cut anything that feels like a stretch.

Your Custom Report

A polished, detailed document built specifically for your business. Not a template with your name swapped in. This includes:

› Executive summary with your top 3 opportunities
› Priority matrix—high impact + low effort = start here
› Specific tool recommendations with setup details
› A 4-day quick-start plan so you're not guessing what to do first
› Estimated hours saved per week—and what that means in billable time, capacity, or money back in your business

The Review Call

A 30-minute walkthrough where we go through the report together. I share my screen, explain each recommendation, answer every question, and make sure you leave knowing exactly what to do next. No confusion. No loose ends.

You'll have everything you need to implement on your own.

The report is designed to be actionable without any outside help. The tools I recommend are ones you can set up yourself, and the quick-start plan tells you exactly what to do on days one through four.

That said, some clients prefer hands-on help with implementation. If that's you, we can discuss the right level of support after you've reviewed the report. No pressure, no upsell baked in—just an option if you want it.

The guarantee

If you're not satisfied after the review call, you get a full refund. That's it. No hoops, no forms, no awkward back-and-forth.

The guarantee covers the assessment—the discovery call, the analysis, the report, and the review. It does not include any implementation work, because there isn't any. You're paying for clarity and a plan, and if you don't feel you got it, you don't pay.

I offer this because I'm confident in the process. When someone tells me where their time goes, I can find where AI fits.

Questions you might be asking

"I'm not technical. Will I be able to use the tools you recommend?"

Yes. I recommend tools that business owners use, not developer platforms. If a tool requires technical skills you don't have, it won't be in your report. Every recommendation comes with setup details written in plain language.

"I've tried AI before and it didn't work for me."

You're not alone—unreliability was the #1 concern in Anthropic's 80,000-person survey, cited by 27% of respondents. But the issue is usually the match, not the technology. ChatGPT is powerful, but asking it generic questions isn't the same as having someone analyze your day and recommend the exact tool that solves your exact bottleneck. That's what the assessment does.

"Won't the recommendations be outdated in a few months?"

AI changes fast. The tools I recommend are established platforms, not shiny new toys that might disappear next quarter. More importantly, the assessment teaches you how to evaluate tools—so when something better does come along, you'll know how to spot it. The important thing is that you start saving time and learning now.

"I can probably figure this out myself."

You can. But how many hours have you already spent trying? Researching tools, watching tutorials, signing up for trials that go nowhere. The assessment compresses months of trial and error into a clear plan you can act on this week.

"What if I need help implementing the recommendations?"

The report gives you everything to do it yourself. But if you'd rather have someone handle the setup, we can discuss implementation support after the review call. It's entirely optional—the assessment stands on its own.

"I'm too busy to take on anything new right now."

The intro call is 15 minutes. The discovery call is 45. The review is 30. That's less than two hours total—and the entire point is to get you hours back every single week. If you don't have a couple hours to invest now, you probably need the assessment more than anyone.

Julio Barros, AI consultant and founder of E-String

Who's behind the assessment

I'm Julio Barros. I've spent 30+ years helping businesses use technology effectively—building apps, leading teams, and figuring out what actually works versus what just sounds good in a pitch.

I run the AI in Production conference and the Agentic Cafe working group—communities where people share what's actually working with AI, not what looks good in a demo.

I spend my days testing, comparing, developing, and using AI tools so you don't have to. When I recommend something, it's because I've used it myself and seen it work for businesses like yours.

This is for you if…

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You run a small business and spend significant time on admin, communication, or repetitive tasks

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You suspect AI could help but haven't found the right fit

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You'd rather get a clear answer than spend more time researching

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You want specific recommendations for your business, not generic advice

We work across industries, but we see the strongest results in professional services (legal, finance, consulting), regulatory intelligence (developers, builders, energy, government), and manufacturing—businesses where time is money and workflows are ripe for automation.

Not quite what you're looking for?

Know what you need but want hands-on help getting it running?

The AI Jumpstart →

Two weeks. AI tools set up in your actual workflows, team trained, ROI documented.

Leading a dev team that needs to ship with AI?

The Agentic Shift →

Four weeks. Your team ships their first agentic workflow and learns to build the next one.

AI is changing how businesses operate. I help you keep up.