A practical guide to AI agents for UK small businesses: where firms actually are with AI, which jobs to hand over first, what it costs in pounds, what UK GDPR requires, and a 30-day plan.
MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the open standard that lets AI agents plug into tools and data. What it does, who runs it, what it means if you never write code, and the security rule that matters.
25 AI agent examples that commercially available tools do today, grouped by department and rated by risk, from invoice chasing and support triage to coding agents, with what the good ones have in common.
A chatbot answers, an assistant drafts, an agent acts. The difference between AI agents, chatbots and assistants, side by side, with a worked example and which to use when.
The five textbook types of AI agent (reflex to learning) and the five practical types you can actually buy (assistant, task, coding, browser, multi-agent), with examples and which fits which job.
Every ICO publication on AI agents and automated decision-making, newest first: the October 2026 call for evidence, the ADM guidance, the statutory AI code and what each means for a small firm.
How to run AI agents locally on an Apple Silicon Mac: which Mac and how much memory, which open models run well in 2026, which software, a first-agent setup, and what it costs over a year against the cloud.
What a personal AI assistant can do today, which one fits which person, what each costs in the UK, how to set one up in an afternoon, and the private, on-device option that keeps your data on your own Mac.
Agentic AI explained in plain English: what the term means, how it differs from generative AI and chatbots, real examples, how to spot agent washing, and what the ICO says UK businesses must do.
What an AI agent is, how it differs from a chatbot and an assistant, what agents can and cannot do today, what they cost in the UK, and how to choose a safe first one.
What UK data protection law requires before you switch on an AI agent: lawful basis, data minimisation, the new Articles 22A to 22D on automated decisions, DPIAs, rights and security, with every ICO source linked.