Claude for Word - Photo by Tiger Lily

Building an AI Agent for Real Team Work

What if your best client reports already exist—you just haven’t assembled them yet?

In this episode of Try AI for Growth, Sara Vicente Barreto shares how she used Claude for Word to transform rough working notes into polished, professional client progress reports. Instead of spending hours rewriting, formatting and structuring information, she uploaded her project mandate alongside her weekly notes and asked Claude to create the first draft.

The result wasn’t simply better writing. It was a repeatable workflow that allowed her to focus on what mattered most: the quality of her thinking and advice. By keeping good notes throughout the week and letting AI handle much of the structure and presentation, she created consistent, client-ready reports in a fraction of the usual time.

If you’re a business leader, consultant or entrepreneur looking for practical ways to use AI in your daily work, this episode demonstrates how AI can remove friction from routine documentation without replacing your expertise or judgement.

AI Agents for Revenue

Building an AI Agent for Real Team Work

Can AI agents help businesses identify opportunities faster and more strategically?

In this episode of Try AI for Growth, Sara Vicente Barreto shares how she built an AI Grant Scout agent for her charity, Um Pequeno Gesto — and why the lessons extend far beyond fundraising.

What started as a grant research experiment evolved into a structured AI workflow designed to scan opportunities, prioritise fit, support decision-making and guide action. Along the way, Sara explores how AI agents can support commercial teams looking for partnerships, funding opportunities, leads or strategic relationships.

The episode also goes behind the scenes of what it actually takes to build a useful AI workflow: creating rules, designing scoring systems, structuring instructions, developing team processes and refining outputs over time.

Rather than treating AI as a one-off prompt tool, this episode explores how leaders can start thinking about AI agents as operational support systems for real business workflows.

Claude for Powerpoint, Photo by Markus Winkler - Pexels Photo

What Happens When You Let Claude Loose on Your Pitch Deck

In this episode of Try AI for Growth, Sara Vicente Barreto shares how a moment of complete creative paralysis at a workshop led to her first experience building apps with Lovable. From redesigning field data collection workflows at the charity to creating spelling and football apps with her son in under ten minutes, this episode explores how AI-powered app building is changing the relationship between ideas and execution — even for non-coders.

My First Lovable Experiment

From Blank to App: My First Lovable Experiment

In this episode of Try AI for Growth, Sara Vicente Barreto shares how a moment of complete creative paralysis at a workshop led to her first experience building apps with Lovable. From redesigning field data collection workflows at the charity to creating spelling and football apps with her son in under ten minutes, this episode explores how AI-powered app building is changing the relationship between ideas and execution — even for non-coders.

Dual monitors showing sales dashboard on left and AI chat conversation on right

Claude for Excel: The AI That Made Me Question My First Job

In this episode, Sara Vicente Barreto explores how Claude for Excel—an AI tool embedded directly into spreadsheets—goes beyond productivity gains. From fixing complex models to building full dashboards, it compresses hours of analyst work into minutes. But more importantly, it raises a bigger question: if AI can now do the work that once helped us learn, how do entry-level roles evolve?

Excel automation with AI

Automating Without Breaking What Works (Excel, AI & Small Wins)

In this episode of Try AI for Growth, Sara Vicente Barreto shares how a small experiment with AI and Excel macros led to a deeper reflection on automation. Starting with a simple but repetitive accounting task, she explores how automation can add memory, reduce cognitive load, and support decision-making — without breaking systems that already work. A grounded, practical story for business owners curious about where to start with automation.

Notebook LLM

Sounds Authentic: How Notebook LLM turned a Report into a Podcast

In this episode of Try AI for Growth, Sara Vicente Barreto explores Notebook LLM—a tool designed to turn documents into audio content. After uploading a detailed NGO report, Sara was blown away to receive a conversational podcast so realistic that her team thought she’d produced it herself. With minimal input, the tool delivered something human, engaging, and ready to share. Sara reflects on how Notebook LLM can revolutionize the way we use reports, turning dense content into powerful, accessible formats. She also experiments with FAQs and mind maps, showing how even the most traditional documents can gain new life with AI.