The back office
A brain for your business, not a chatbot
A private AI brain, built on Obsidian and Claude, that holds your processes, protocols, and decisions, your intake scripts, fee structure, referral process, and how you run things. Never client case notes or session content, which stay in your existing clinical records system. Structural memory for how your business actually runs, not a novelty that answers questions in a cute voice.
If the front desk greets your clients, this is the back office that remembers what's behind it.
One example, not a general description
The brain, in practice: Thinking With AI
Thinking With AI is a popular newsletter on AI's structural and psychological effects. As its archive grew, it became too large to hold in memory: which arguments had already been made, which ideas connected to which essays, what research was sitting unused. The brain fixed that.
- Writing time dropped, because nothing gets reconstructed from scratch.
- Research stops getting lost: it's captured once and surfaces again exactly when it's relevant.
- Every new essay draws on the full accumulated archive, instead of starting from a blank page.
A clear boundary
What it does, and what it doesn't
It's infrastructure for how your business runs, not a public-facing gimmick. The boundary is what keeps it useful instead of gimmicky.
What it does
- Holds your processes, so they don't live only in your head
- Keeps your protocols, intake scripts, fee structure, and referral process organised and searchable
- Answers questions about your own business, using your own material
- Gives a new hire or collaborator a real starting point
- Grows and stays current as your business changes
What it never does
- Talks to your clients or customers directly
- Makes decisions on your behalf
- Replaces your judgement
- Holds anything you haven't put into it
- Shares your information anywhere without your say-so
Privacy and data
Handled properly, whichever industry you're in
A brain like this holds real information about your business, so how that information is handled matters. The approach differs a little depending on what you do.
If you're a therapist or health practitioner
Health information counts as special category data under UK GDPR, so it's treated with extra care from day one. We agree with you exactly what goes into the system, and client case notes and session content never go into the brain. Those stay in your existing clinical records system, and a proper data processing agreement is in place before anything is stored.
If you're in another industry
For most other businesses, this is standard business data: your processes, protocols, decisions, and how you run things, not client or customer records. It's still handled under UK GDPR, kept private to your business, stored securely, and never used to train external models or shared with anyone else.
Questions you might have
Honest answers to honest questions
Is this just a chatbot?
No. A chatbot answers questions from a script. This holds the actual structure of your business, its processes, its history, its decisions, and lets you or your team query it directly. The value is in what it remembers, not in how it talks.
What does "built on Obsidian and Claude" mean?
Obsidian holds your notes as plain, linked files that you own outright, nothing locked in a proprietary database. Claude reads and writes into that vault, so you can ask it questions and it can help keep the notes organised and current. Two tools doing one job, in a system that stays yours.
How is my data handled?
It depends on what your business holds. If you're a therapist or other health practitioner, it's treated as special category health data under UK GDPR. For other industries, it's handled as standard business data, also under UK GDPR. See "Privacy and data" above for the detail.
How long does it take to build?
It depends on how much of your business already lives in documents versus in your head. We start with a short conversation to work out what needs capturing, then build the vault with you rather than for you, so it reflects how your business actually runs.
Do I need to use Obsidian myself?
Not if you don't want to. Some people like having the notes open themselves; others just want to ask questions and get answers. Either way works.
Get in touch
Curious what this would look like for your business?
If any of this sounds useful, the next step is a short conversation, not a sales pitch. Tell me a bit about your business and I'll be honest about whether this is a good fit.