An AI-tastic meet up – notes from 27th August 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 27th August, 14 freelancers met in the Lord Nelson and then Battle of Trafalgar pubs in Brighton to talk all things tech and freelancing, mainly AI tools this time. Apologies to everyone who was there if I’ve mixed up some of the tools in this write up.
It was lovely to see Simon for the first time in years, delays having happened because of lockdowns and then parenthood.
This is some of what we talked about:
- Big catch up with visitors from the Isle of Man
- Using AI tools to broaden your skills base
- Using AI to make project documents
- Building apps for a new business venture
- “I’m using AI to make less money” – efficiency isn’t always good?
- Playwright for AI driven testing
- Browser MCP (Playwright alternative)
- Using Storybook for a kind of regression testing
- Context 7 MCP server
- N8n for planning out what you’re going to create
- Mermaid diagrams
- Whispr for voice control/input
- PyCon plans
- How to save money
- Saving into a SIPP (pension) or ISA (more available)
- 7-11s in Thailand
- Microcement
- Being willing to try marketing routes and having a plan A, B & C really helps with freelancing
AI tools and freelancing
In general, I’m a bit of a skeptic of the usefulness of Large Language Model (LLM) AI tools. This week the Farm meet up was largely about how some of us, especially one, was using a suite of available tools to get results they were very happy with. They were able to offer services to properly paying client building web apps and functionality within websites that previously they’d have needed one or more developers to help with.
The range of tools seems to be the key. Using N8n lets them plan what they’re going to build, Playwright (or alternatives) help with testing, and Storybook helps document the code and gives them a version of “regression testing” where they can see where the latest AI written code is doubling up on existing code and intervene to direct it to use or adapt existing methods/functions.
So, a stack of tools is helping a designer do development in a sensible way. They’re trying to document the project in a way that lets them understand if the tools are going wrong, without needing to know enough of the code to become a programmer.
Honestly, this makes me warm to the idea of using the tools. I don’t have anything suitable to do with them at the moment as a lot of the time I’m spelunking through awkward, old code which really needs the human touch, but I’m going to go through my old project ideas to see if there’s something I can make for myself and assess what these tools can do for me. I know theoretically they can help, but talking to someone who is using them in earnest and I can trust to sensibly assess the tools, not use them blindly, is a lot more interesting than talking to someone who seems more interested in aggressively selling their favourite chatbot.
This was one of those meet ups where I got to shut up, listen to a small number of people talk deeply about the tools they’re using, and try to keep up. I like those sorts of meetings, they tend to be good for my brain and my business.