The 20-minute AI tune-up

Most small shops have no IT desk. One owner used an AI assistant as his.

Evan Kirstel is a tech podcaster and consultant. He works solo. He has no IT department. He uses Claude as his help desk for his laptop and his phone. It cleared 125GB from a full drive. It fixed six security settings on his iPhone. It cleaned up his browser. It also kept his laptop awake through a long job. The phone audit took twenty minutes. Read the full case: 125GB cleared, six settings fixed.

Run the tune-up

1. Ask for a list first. Tell the assistant to list what it finds: low disk space, weak security settings, and browser clutter. It must change nothing yet.
2. Rank the list by risk. Work on the riskiest item first.
3. Free disk space. In the case above, the assistant cleared 125GB from a full drive.
4. Check the phone security settings. In the case above, the assistant fixed six settings on his iPhone. The phone audit took twenty minutes.
5. Clean the browser. In the case above, the assistant cleaned up his browser.
6. Approve each change. The assistant made one change at a time. It checked with him before each change.
7. Get the undo list. At the end, ask for a list of what changed. Ask how to undo each change.

What never to hand over

Never hand over your passcode. Never hand over passwords or recovery keys. In the case above, the assistant refused to type his passcode. It also refused to store his recovery key in email.