Well, I am honestly over the moon to say that I have filled the diary for the rest of this year! Building a small business from the ground up is difficult, and there have certainly been times where I've questioned whether the effort was worth it. Like many small business owners, I've had projects that didn't materialise, enquiries that went nowhere, and periods when the email inbox was a little quieter than I'd have liked. That's why reaching this point feels significant. W

I'm currently parked in a coffee shop at Edinburgh Waverley, travelling to a microbiology health and safety course and, for once, I'm putting the trip to good use by updating this blog rather than mindlessly doomscrolling on my phone! Health and safety might not be the most exciting topic in the world, but it's at the heart of both my day job and my consultancy work. As a laboratory manager, it's about making sure my team can work safely and confidently every day. As a cons

I am absolutely delighted to say that I have completed my training to enable me to start my Technical Assessor role with UKAS. Can’t wait to see where in the country the job will take me! https://app.diplomasafe.com/en-US/certificates/dcc0d2e26431558f75176ce708f0bea0bc7263008?trk=feed_main-feed-card_feed-article-content

When I talk about my business, one question I get asked a lot is: “What actually is AI training?” It’s a broad term, and the answer can look quite different depending on the project. In my case, part of my current work involves training AI to recognise what makes a good PowerPoint slide. I do this by evaluating AI-generated slides against a specific prompt and a set of template slides, and rating how well they meet the brief. So, what does that actually involve? Where do I

My two working worlds have truly collided - taking my love of microbiology, diagnostics and farming into my own business! This week marks the next phase of my UKAS training, focusing on ISO 17025 accreditation, so it's all feeling very real now! It’s a wee bit of a side step from the AI training, and an exciting opportunity to build on the experience I already have within the world of laboratory quality and accreditation. As a manager of a UKAS-accredited microbiology diagnos

AI training is generally a bit fast and furious, and the competition is high. It means that often hundreds or even thousands of people have few tasks to split between them when they drop. In one of my current projects, there is a queuing system, so you join the work queue and it gives you a time estimate on when the next task comes up. It is then automatically assigned to you, and then off you go! It feels incredibly British and organised 🤣. I like it!

Well it’s officially a hat trick - I have now teamed up with three leading AI companies - micro1, Handshake AI and Mercor! I’m so excited that my wee business continues to grow, and working with several different companies is giving me much better insight and training in the sector. I started my first project with Mercor this morning and it’s shaping up to be a very interesting and longer-term piece of work. I have carried out some comprehensive training with Mercor in “spott

I've been lucky enough to be included in three comprehensive training courses with a leading AI company - Mercor - on learning to spot "AI slop"! This has involved around 8 hours of solid training which has been really interesting. OK so let's face it - the internet has always been full of low-quality content, so AI hasn't exactly started that. However, AI has made it possible to produce that content at an incredible scale. “AI slop” is the informal term for mass produced,

Shouldn't AI training a stable, full‑time career by now? In short - that won't be the norm for a long time! The industry is exploding, new models are popping up constantly, and companies are always talking about how much human input they need. However, once you’re actually doing the work, you realise pretty quickly that it doesn’t behave like a normal job at all. It’s more like a series of sprints. One minute you’re drowning in tasks, and the next you’re refreshing the das

I am delighted to be enrolled on my first UKAS training course today, to get me set up as a Technical Assessor. What has struck me this morning is the huge diversity of work that UKAS are involved in - from assessment of diagnostic labs to the assessment of railway networks! It's great to meet such a wide range of people from different backgrounds. This feels like a huge step forward for my business and I am excited to travel around the UK to assess other diagnostic labs (bo

I am excited to announce my new partnership with Handshake AI, where I have joined today as an AI Trainer and Domain Expert. I am very much looking forward to working with them, as they genuinely want AI to be usable in the real-world. My first project involves training AI on microscopy images - a topic I love! Specifically, teaching the system how to recognise patterns, structures and diagnostic features using images with different levels of complexity. It's a great projec

The short answer is no! But, it is most likely going to reshape what our jobs may look like. Ultimately, AI is about automation, and we are already in a world where automation is in full flow. In the microbiology diagnostics lab that I run in my full-time job, we have an instrument called a MALDI-TOF - which is a high-tech and powerful piece of kit that helps us identify bacteria in minutes. Often, this replaces the more laborious task of "old school" microbiology, which in

The UK biotech industry is amongst the biggest in Europe - so why is it so wobbly right now? I’ve seen the impact first‑hand - several agri‑biotech companies have shut down recently, because the system around them couldn’t support growth. According to the British BioIndustry Association, international rivals have the capital to grow at a much faster rate. The UK has fallen significantly behind international competitors in terms of research and development investment. In a r

Reaching one year in business feels both surreal and satisfying. It hasn’t been a smooth journey - I’ve had some great wins, but far more losses than wins, including one potential client who expected me to complete weeks of work for free! Still, every setback has taught me something valuable, and the business has already grown in directions I never expected. My biggest focus this year has been AI training. I started with a small project in November 2025, followed by a long,

Breaking into AI training looks simple - right up until you actually try it! The moment you start applying, you realise you’re competing with thousands of other people, all trying to squeeze through the same narrow doorway. The field feels open, but the bar is high. The work demands sharp reasoning, clear writing, and the ability to follow shifting guidelines while still hitting tight deadlines. It’s fast, it’s intense, and it’s absolutely not the casual side hustle people i

I have just returned from a fantastic family holiday to Corfu so I am feeling well rested and ready to kick off a compost microbiome experiment for one of my amazing clients. Check in again tomorrow and come along for the ride 🙂.

For some, a calendar full of meetings is the stuff of nightmares! However, I am so lucky to actually look forward to meeting with a variety of different people with amazing ideas and projects to tackle. I had two meetings on Thursday - one about composting, another about FRCpath laboratory assessments - so it was a very diverse day! I have also been meeting other biology experts from around the world on Slack as part of my AI training work. With three projects now ongoing at

I have been invited by Midlothian Council and Business Gateway to submit a business plan to receive a grant for my start up costs. So, this is what my day is looking like! I am so proud of how far my business has come in the last 10 months - and to be honest, it was really unexpected! That’s why the business plan is counterintuitively coming now, as I had no idea how my business was going to take shape. Consulting work is unpredictable and work often arrives all at once! (Typ

I’m putting in a shift from home today, so there will be less temptation for cakes! But thankfully I have my coffee machine at home to keep me energised! I have been consulting for micro1, an AI development company, since November 2025. I’ve built up a lot of experience in training AI models and I am delighted to now act as both an AI trainer and a project reviewer - meaning that I assess other people’s work prior to submission to the client. We have started a huge training p

Had a fantastic morning hitting the road with my colleague! First, it was sample collection day - and my boot is now full to the brim with compost! More on that later… Of course, my demanding colleague needed a break so we stopped off to stretch his legs. I then demanded a stop for a coffee and cake at The Chocolate Barn! I love my job! 🙂