The smallest useful AI you can deploy this week (with a kill switch)

You don’t need a platform or a committee to get value from AI. You need one tiny, boring‑but‑useful job, a safe way to run it, and a big red “off” switch.

This post gives you a practical, copy‑paste path to land one small, low‑risk AI helper—the kind that makes a visible difference without rewriting your stack.

What “smallest useful” looks like

Narrow: Clear input → clear output (text in, text out).
Observable: You can tell if it did the right thing in under a minute.
Reversible: A kill switch puts the system back to how it worked yesterday.
Privacy‑sane: No sensitive data leaves your house unless you’re comfortable with it.

Think assist not “autopilot.” You still decide; the AI drafts, suggests, or sorts.

Pick exactly one of these starter jobs

Choose the one that fits your world today. Each is text‑only, measurable, and safe to trial.

Blog SEO helper (great for WordPress)\ Input: a published post. Output: a 150‑character meta description, 3 alt‑text lines, 5 tags.\ Visible win: better snippets in search and consistent alt‑text.
Support inbox triage\ Input: new email or contact form text. Output: category + urgency (Low/Med/High) + two‑sentence summary.\ Visible win: faster routing, fewer “who owns this?” threads.
Meeting note condenser\ Input: a raw note file or transcript. Output: 5 bullets + 3 concrete follow‑ups (no names, no sensitive data).\ Visible win: stakeholders can read the whole meeting in 30 seconds.
Code review checklist generator\ Input: PR title + diff summary. Output: a checklist (security, tests, docs, perf) matched to the change.\ Visible win: more consistent reviews in less time.
Log anomaly explainer\ Input: a log excerpt or error text (sanitized). Output: “what it likely means” + “first thing to try.”\ Visible win: quicker first response without paging the on‑call at 2 a.m.

Pick one. If you’re torn, do #1 or #2—they show value in under an hour and avoid sensitive data if you do it right.

Guardrails before you touch a line of code

Data diet: Don’t send secrets, PII, payment data, private customer text, or internal tokens.
Scope: Plain text only. Cap length (e.g., first 5,000 characters).
Timeout & retries: 10–20s timeout; max one retry; graceful fallback.
Output shape: Demand strict JSON or fixed bullets you can validate.
Logging: Keep inputs & outputs (sanitized) for spot checks; store for a short, clear period.
Kill switch: A feature flag (AI_ENABLED=false) that instantly returns the old behavior.
Attribution: If the draft is public‑facing (e.g., meta descriptions), you’re the editor. Never ship raw model output without a skim.

Monday plan: land one helper in ~9 steps

Choose the job (#1–#5 above).
Define the acceptance (1–2 sentences). Example: > “Given a blog post, produce a 140–160 character meta description, 3 alt‑text lines ≤125 chars, and 5 tags. No emojis, no hashtags.”
Pick a provider you already have (Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Claude, or a local model via Ollama). Use whatever your org allows.
Write a compact prompt (see examples below).
Force a schema: ask for JSON with exact keys and lengths; reject otherwise.
**Wire the feature flag (kill switch): AI_ENABLED env var or a WP option toggle.
Add a tiny UI affordance (checkbox “Use AI draft”). Default off for the first week.
Log 20 runs and manually score correctness (Pass / Needs edit / Wrong).
Decide: keep, tweak, or kill. If you keep it, roll from 10% → 100% of eligible cases.

Ready‑to‑use prompts (copy/paste)

A) Blog SEO helper (post → meta + alt‑text + tags)

System / instruction prompt:

You write succinct, literal meta descriptions and image alt-text. 
Never invent facts not present in the input. 
Respect the constraints exactly.
Return ONLY valid minified JSON.

User prompt:

INPUT:
<POST_TITLE>{{title}}</POST_TITLE>
<POST_URL>{{url}}</POST_URL>
<POST_BODY>{{first_5000_chars_of_html_stripped}}</POST_BODY>

TASKS:
1) Meta description: 140–160 chars. No quotes. Plain sentence. No emojis.
2) Alt text: 3 lines, ≤125 chars each, describing likely header/hero image content in neutral language. Do not mention “image of”.
3) Tags: 5 short tags (lowercase, hyphenated), based on the content.

OUTPUT JSON SCHEMA:
{
  "meta_description": "string (140-160 chars)",
  "alt_text": ["string<=125","string<=125","string<=125"],
  "tags": ["kebab-case","kebab-case","kebab-case","kebab-case","kebab-case"]
}

B) Support inbox triage (email → category + urgency + summary)

System / instruction prompt:

You classify support emails conservatively. Do not guess beyond the text.
Output strict JSON only.

User prompt:

EMAIL:
{{sanitized_email_body}}

CATEGORIES: ["billing","bug","how-to","feedback","sales","other"]
URGENCY: ["low","medium","high"]

Return:
{
  "category": "<one of CATEGORIES>",
  "urgency": "<one of URGENCY>",
  "summary": "<2 concise sentences, no names, no ticket numbers>"
}

Validation & safety snippets

Regex check for JSON keys (conceptual; use your language’s JSON schema/checker):

function isValidOutput(obj){

  if(!obj) return false;

  if(typeof obj.metadescription === 'string' && obj.metadescription.length>=140 && obj.metadescription.length<=160

     && Array.isArray(obj.alttext) && obj.alttext.length===3 && obj.alttext.every(s=>s.length<=125)

     && Array.isArray(obj.tags) && obj.tags.length===5 && obj.tags.every(t=>/^[a-z0-9]+(-[a-z0-9]+)*$/.test(t))) {

    return true;

  }

  return false;

}

PII guard (very simple example)—redact emails/phones before send:

function sanitize(text){

  return text

    .replace(/[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,}/gi, "[redacted-email]")

    .replace(/\+?\d[\d\s().-]{7,}\d/g, "[redacted-phone]");

}

Kill switch pattern:

const AIENABLED = process.env.AIENABLED === 'true';

async function getSeoDraft(post){

  if(!AI_ENABLED) return legacySeo(post);  // immediate fallback

  const input = sanitize(extractText(post));

  const ai = await callModel(input);

  return isValidOutput(ai) ? ai : legacySeo(post);

}

(Translate to PHP, Python, or whatever your site uses; the pattern is what matters.)

How to judge success (fast and honest)

Create a tiny sheet with 20 rows and score each run:

Pass (shippable as‑is)
Edit (one quick fix)
Wrong (not usable)

Keep two numbers: Pass+Edit % and editor time saved (gut‑check minutes is fine the first week). If Pass+Edit ≥ 80% and you feel the time win, keep it. If not, fix the prompt or kill it (flag off) and try another job.

Rollout slices that won’t bite you

Week 1 → Opt‑in (checkbox, 10% of cases)
Week 2 → Default‑on (user can turn off per item)
Week 3 → Background suggest (auto‑draft that you can accept/edit)

At any time, flip AI_ENABLED=false. No drama, no outages, no regrets.

Troubleshooting: common misses and quick fixes

Output is verbose or drifts off topic → tighten the task list and add length limits; require JSON.
Model invents details → add “Never invent facts not in input” to the instruction; reduce temperature.
Alt‑text sounds like marketing copy → say “neutral, literal description; no brand words.”
Tags are too generic → add 2–3 example tags you like; forbid generic words (“tech”, “news”).
Latency hurts UX → use a background draft pattern; show a spinner only if the draft arrives within 1–2 seconds; otherwise show the legacy UI and let the draft appear later.
Costs creep → cap tokens/characters up front; batch calls; cache outputs on a content hash.

Run this now (checklist)

[ ] Choose one job (start with Blog SEO helper).
[ ] Write the 1–2 sentence acceptance description.
[ ] Add the feature flag (AI_ENABLED=false to start).
[ ] Paste the prompt and wire a single API call (or local model).
[ ] Enforce JSON shape; add sanitizer and fallback.
[ ] Test on 5 real items; log inputs/outputs (sanitized).
[ ] Turn on for you only; collect 20 runs; score Pass/Edit/Wrong.
[ ] Keep if ≥80% usable and you feel faster; otherwise, kill and try the next job.

If you want, I can tailor the Blog SEO helper specifically for your WordPress setup—down to a tiny PHP function that pulls the post, strips HTML, calls your chosen model, validates output, and writes the meta fields. Do you want it as PHP for a custom plugin or JS via a headless endpoint?