Resources
Practical AI training, technology articles, books, tools and podcasts to help you put better ideas to work.
AI Stairway™: practical AI training for work
Build the habits behind better AI results, from clear briefs and checking answers to shared team skills, agents and workflow planning. Explore ten online modules across Foundation and Advanced series. Start with Know Your AI Blind Spots, a free 22-minute introductory module, on phone or desktop.
Free Business Assessments
Check your AI foundations, explore opportunities and competitive risks, assess your startup's readiness to build, or identify concerns in an existing app.
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AI Readiness Score (Free Report)
Check the foundations for useful AI and automation across leadership, process, data, security and people. Twelve readiness questions and four context questions help you identify what to strengthen, including staff adoption and measuring results.
AI Opportunity Score (Free Report)
Get your score: Take the quick online assessment and discover where AI could be most transformative in your business — the quick wins, the bigger builds, and where to start.
AI Disruption Risk Score (Free Report)
Get your score: Take the 4–6 minute online AI Disruption Risk Score, discover your AI risk exposure across 5 critical pillars, and uncover the blindspots.
Startup Readiness Score (Free Report)
Get your score: Take the 3-minute readiness assessment and discover whether your startup is ready to build across five critical pillars, from product-market clarity to go-to-market.
App Risk Check (Free Report)
Check your app's ownership, reliability, releases, recovery and support in 3–5 minutes. Get a self-report score and practical actions to verify with your team. The check uses your answers; it does not inspect code or certify that an app is safe.
Articles and Insights
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Why AI adoption stalls, and what each step needs
Bought the licences and nothing much has changed? You're not alone. Here's why AI adoption stalls at each step of the climb, why it's rarely the technology, and how to see where your organisation really stands.
Where should your AI agent live? Copilot Studio, Foundry or code
Choose between Copilot Chat, Agent Builder, Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry and custom code, with practical examples, cost comparisons and six questions to guide your decision.
Why judgement matters in AI-assisted software development
AI makes it easier to build. Andrew Ward explores how expert judgement helps us choose worthwhile problems, verify AI-assisted work and deliver useful software.
Tech Toolkit Podcast
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App Launch Best Practices, Tips & Tricks - App Launch Checklist for Releasing Successful Apps!
What does it take to launch a successful mobile app? Discover best practices, tips, tricks, and secrets to ensure your app makes a lasting impact.
Should You Rebuild Your Existing App or Work With What You Already Have?
Should you remake your app or extend your old app? This case answers these important questions. Here is what you should consider and what to do next.
Get Better Results: 77 App Conversion Rate Boosting Tips & Tricks - App CRO Strategies
77 strategies to boost your digital platform's conversion rates. Elevate your user engagement & drive growth with our actionable tips and tricks.
Our Books
The Control Standard
The Control Standard is a short, practical operating standard for the person who wants to be observably easier to trust with important work, without more meetings, more templates, or more rescue behaviour.
Execute Your Tech Idea: A Step by Step Guide for Non-Techies, Professionals, Managers, and Startups
Have an idea for an app or online portal? If so, this book is for you! Execute Your Tech Idea is a step-by-step guide for non-techies to help you learn the fundamentals of launching a tech project. Its step-by-step nature aims to gradually build your knowledge to provide you with the tools you need to succeed in an approachable and easy-to-understand format.
The ChatGPT Guide for Business: A Quick-Start Guide to Effective AI Use and Prompt Engineering In Work and Business
Discover the power of AI for your business with this essential guide to ChatGPT! Full of practical applications and techniques, learn how to harness AI to boost productivity, enhance your work and gain a competitive edge. From business communications to project management, marketing and more, learn how to use AI responsibly. A must-read for you or your team!
Guides and Glossary
Two reference libraries to lean on before and during a build — the long read, and the quick definition.
Free tools
Free, open-source AI desktop apps we built for ourselves and now share.
Text-to-Mic: Free AI Text-to-Speech-to-Microphone Tool (TTS & STTTS App for Windows and Mac)
Text-to-Mic is a free, open-source text-to-speech and speech-to-text-to-speech app for Windows and Mac. It turns typed or spoken text into natural AI speech and plays it to your speakers, headset or a virtual microphone, so you can speak in online meetings without using your voice.
Open-Source Wispr Flow Alternative: Quick Whisper for Windows and Linux
Quick Whisper is free open-source desktop software (a Wispr Flow alternative) that converts your spoken words to copy-edited text, inserted straight into your active application. It uses OpenAI models to improve the speed, quality and consistency of transcribed and copy-edited text.
How to send passwords securely: why we built Scorchsoft Locknote
Why we built a free tool for secure password sharing: browser-side encryption, approved email recipients, expiry and a clearer handover for customers.
Need help building your ideas?
Tell us where you're headed and we'll come back with our thoughts, a realistic plan and a rough cost estimate. Scorchsoft is a UK-based team of app, portal and AI developers, working in-house from Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter.