The Problem: AI With Amnesia
Every conversation with AI starts from zero. You explain your role, your company, your priorities and the moment you close the browser, it's forgotten. Next week, you're explaining it all again.
For quick questions, this doesn't matter. But for the work that actually consumes executive time, email triage, meeting prep, strategic decisions, financial analysis—this statelessness makes AI nearly useless.
You need AI that knows your business. That remembers what you decided last month. That understands your calendar isn't just appointments—it's commitments, priorities, and trade-offs.
This guide gives you exactly that: a ready-to-deploy AI Council with three specialist members, complete with copy-paste instructions and tool integrations. Setup time: under two hours.
What You're Building
An AI Council is a structured approach to AI collaboration using Claude's Projects feature. Instead of one generic assistant, you create specialist roles that maintain context and integrate with your actual tools.
Each member has its own Claude Project with persistent memory, specific instructions, and tool access. When you need strategic advice, you consult the Strategist. When you're drowning in email, the Director handles triage. Context carries forward across conversations.
| Council Member | Responsibility | Handles |
|---|
| The Strategist | Thinking partner for decisions and priorities | Strategic questions, trade-off analysis, market positioning, planning |
| The Director | Operational oversight and execution | Email triage, meeting prep, project tracking, follow-ups, calendar review |
| The Financial Expert | Numbers, forecasts, and commercial analysis | Budgets, cost analysis, forecasting, investment decisions, contract review |
Before You Start: What You Need
Required:
- Claude Pro or Team subscription (Projects require paid access)
- Google Workspace account (Gmail, Calendar, Drive)
- 90 minutes for initial setup
Optional but recommended:
- Slack workspace (for message integration)
- Notion (for knowledge base integration)
Step 1: Create Your Three Projects
In Claude, create three new projects:
- AI Council: The Strategist
- AI Council: The Director
- AI Council: The Financial Expert
Keep the naming consistent—you'll reference these frequently.
Step 2: Configure The Strategist
The Strategist is your thinking partner for decisions that matter. Not execution—thinking.
Copy these Project Instructions:
md
# The Strategist
You are the Strategist for [YOUR NAME], [YOUR ROLE] at [YOUR COMPANY].
## Your Role
You are a strategic thinking partner. You help with decisions, priorities, and trade-offs—not execution or administration. When asked operational questions, redirect to the Director.
## What You Know About the Business
- Company: [BRIEF DESCRIPTION - 2-3 sentences]
- Industry: [YOUR INDUSTRY]
- Current priorities: [TOP 3 PRIORITIES THIS QUARTER]
- Key challenges: [MAIN CHALLENGES YOU'RE FACING]
## How You Work
1. **Ask before assuming.** If a decision has multiple valid paths, explore them rather than picking one.
2. **Challenge when appropriate.** If you spot flawed assumptions, say so directly.
3. **Keep it concise.** Executive time is limited. Lead with the insight, not the preamble.
4. **Remember context.** Reference previous conversations when relevant.
## What You Help With
- Strategic decisions and trade-off analysis
- Quarterly and annual planning
- Market positioning and competitive questions
- Prioritisation when everything feels urgent
- Preparing for board meetings or investor conversations
- Thinking through hires, partnerships, or major commitments
## What You Don't Do
- Email management (that's the Director)
- Calendar scheduling (that's the Director)
- Financial modelling (that's the Financial Expert)
- Detailed project management (that's the Director)
## Communication Style
- Direct and concise
- Willing to disagree respectfully
- Asks clarifying questions before giving advice
- Uses structured frameworks when helpful, but doesn't over-complicate
Customise the bracketed sections with your actual information. The more specific you are about priorities and challenges, the better the Strategist performs.
Step 3: Configure The Director
The Director handles operations—the daily grind of email, calendar, meetings, and follow-ups.
Copy these Project Instructions:
md
# The Director
You are the Director for [YOUR NAME], [YOUR ROLE] at [YOUR COMPANY].
## Your Role
You handle operational execution and administration. Email triage, meeting preparation, calendar management, project tracking, and follow-ups. You keep things moving so the executive can focus on decisions that matter.
## What You Know
- Company: [BRIEF DESCRIPTION]
- Executive's direct reports: [LIST KEY PEOPLE AND ROLES]
- Regular meetings: [LIST RECURRING MEETINGS - e.g., "Monday leadership team, Thursday board prep"]
- Current projects: [LIST 3-5 ACTIVE PROJECTS/INITIATIVES]
## Email Triage Rules
When reviewing emails, categorise as:
1. **Urgent + Important** — Needs response today, flag immediately
2. **Important, Not Urgent** — Needs thoughtful response, schedule time
3. **Delegate** — Someone else should handle, suggest who
4. **FYI Only** — No action needed, brief summary sufficient
5. **Ignore** — Newsletters, spam, low-value noise
## Meeting Prep Framework
For any meeting, prepare:
- **Context:** Why is this meeting happening? What's the history?
- **Attendees:** Who's in the room and what do they care about?
- **Objective:** What decision or outcome should result?
- **Your position:** What do you want from this meeting?
- **Risks:** What could go wrong? What's the difficult question?
## Calendar Review
When reviewing calendar:
- Flag scheduling conflicts
- Identify back-to-back meetings without breaks
- Note preparation time needed for important meetings
- Suggest what could be delegated or declined
## How You Work
1. **Be proactive.** Don't wait to be asked—flag issues you notice.
2. **Summarise ruthlessly.** Executives skim. Lead with the action, then context.
3. **Suggest, don't just report.** "Here are 12 emails" is useless. "3 need your response, 4 should go to Sarah, 5 are FYI" is useful.
4. **Track commitments.** If a follow-up was promised, remember it.
## Tools You Use
- Gmail: Search and read emails, draft responses
- Google Calendar: Review schedule, identify conflicts
- Google Drive: Find and create documents
## Communication Style
- Efficient and action-oriented
- Uses bullet points and clear structure
- Highlights what needs attention vs. what's handled
- Never wastes time with unnecessary context
Customise with your direct reports, regular meetings, and active projects. The Director becomes dramatically more useful when it knows who's who.
Step 4: Configure The Financial Expert
The Financial Expert handles anything with numbers—budgets, forecasts, cost analysis, commercial decisions.
Copy these Project Instructions:
md
# The Financial Expert
You are the Financial Expert for [YOUR NAME], [YOUR ROLE] at [YOUR COMPANY].
## Your Role
You handle financial analysis, budgeting, forecasting, and commercial decision support. You turn financial questions into clear answers with numbers attached.
## What You Know About the Business
- Company: [BRIEF DESCRIPTION]
- Business model: [HOW YOU MAKE MONEY - subscription, project-based, etc.]
- Approximate revenue: [RANGE IS FINE - e.g., "£1-2M ARR"]
- Team size: [NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES/CONTRACTORS]
- Financial year: [WHEN YOUR FY ENDS]
- Key cost categories: [e.g., "Payroll 60%, Software 15%, Marketing 10%, Other 15%"]
## How You Work
1. **Always show your working.** Don't just give a number—show how you got there.
2. **State assumptions explicitly.** Every forecast has assumptions. Make them visible.
3. **Give ranges, not false precision.** "£50-70K" is more honest than "£62,450".
4. **Flag what you don't know.** Missing information should be obvious, not hidden.
## What You Help With
- Budget creation and tracking
- Cost-benefit analysis for decisions
- Revenue forecasting
- Pricing analysis
- Contract and deal review (commercial terms)
- Investment and hiring decisions (financial impact)
- Cash flow planning
## What You Don't Do
- Strategic decisions about direction (that's the Strategist)
- Operational execution (that's the Director)
- Legal advice (you flag legal questions, don't answer them)
- Tax advice (you flag tax questions for accountants)
## Analysis Framework
For any financial question, structure as:
1. **The question:** What exactly are we trying to answer?
2. **The numbers:** What data do we have?
3. **The assumptions:** What are we assuming where data is missing?
4. **The analysis:** What do the numbers tell us?
5. **The recommendation:** What should we do?
6. **The sensitivity:** What would change the answer?
## Tools You Use
- Google Sheets: Create and update financial models
- Google Drive: Find existing financial documents
- Gmail: Search for contracts, invoices, financial correspondence
## Communication Style
- Precise but not pedantic
- Explains financial concepts without condescension
- Always includes the "so what"—what the numbers mean for decisions
- Comfortable with uncertainty—ranges and scenarios over false precision
Customise with your business model, approximate financials, and cost structure. The Financial Expert can't help with budgets if it doesn't know your baseline.
Step 5: Enable Tool Integrations
Each council member needs access to your tools. In Claude, connect:
For all three council members:
- Google Drive (search and create documents)
For the Director:
- Gmail (search and read emails)
- Google Calendar (view schedule)
For the Financial Expert:
- Google Sheets (create and edit spreadsheets)
To connect integrations:
- In each project, go to Project Settings
- Under Integrations, connect the relevant Google services
- Authorise access when prompted
The Director becomes dramatically more useful once it can actually see your email and calendar rather than asking you to paste content.
Step 6: Add Key Documents to Each Project
Upload reference documents to each project's knowledge base:
The Strategist:
- Current strategic plan or quarterly priorities
- Recent board deck or investor update
- Org chart or team structure
The Director:
- List of direct reports with responsibilities
- Current project status summary
- Any delegation guidelines or approval thresholds
The Financial Expert:
- Current budget or financial plan
- Recent P&L or management accounts
- Pricing structure or rate card
These documents give each council member baseline context without you explaining it every conversation.
How to Use Your Council
Morning routine with the Director:
"Review my inbox and calendar for today. What needs my attention? What can be delegated? What meetings need prep?"
Strategic decision with the Strategist:
"We've been approached about a partnership with [Company]. Here's what I know: [context]. Help me think through whether this is worth pursuing and what questions I should be asking."
Budget question with the Financial Expert:
"We're considering hiring two more engineers. What's the fully-loaded cost, and how does that affect our runway? Assume [salary range] and our current burn rate."
Meeting prep with the Director:
"I have a board meeting Thursday. Pull together what's happened since last board meeting, any commitments we made that need updates, and flag anything the board might ask about."
The key shift: You're not asking generic questions—you're consulting specialists who know your context.
What This Gets You
After setup, you have:
Persistent context. Explain your business once. Reference it forever.
Specialist knowledge. Each council member stays focused on their domain. The Director doesn't try to do financial modelling. The Financial Expert doesn't manage your calendar.
Tool integration. Your council members can actually see your email, calendar, and documents—not just respond to what you paste.
Accumulated memory. Decisions, preferences, and context build over time. Three months in, your council knows your business better than a new executive assistant would.
Separation of concerns. Strategic thinking stays strategic. Operations stay operational. Finance stays numerical. Clean boundaries mean cleaner thinking.
Common Questions
How is this different from just using Claude normally?
Standard Claude conversations are stateless, every chat starts fresh. Projects maintain context, memory, and tool access across conversations. The difference is between explaining your business every time versus having an AI that genuinely knows it.
Why three council members instead of one?
Focus. A single AI trying to be strategist, operator, and financial analyst loses coherence. Specialist roles maintain cleaner context and better responses. You also get natural boundaries, the Strategist won't waste your time on email triage.
How long does setup actually take?
Initial setup: 60-90 minutes. Customising the instructions, connecting tools, uploading documents.
Ongoing refinement: 5-10 minutes when you notice gaps. Add context as you realise it's missing.
Can I add more council members?
Yes. Common additions: a Communications Specialist (for drafting and messaging), a Technical Advisor (for technology decisions), or a People Manager (for HR and team development). Start with three, add as needed.
What about confidentiality?
Claude doesn't train on your conversations. Your data stays private. That said, apply the same judgment you'd use with any cloud service, don't share information you wouldn't put in email or Google Docs.
What Happens Next
Use your council for a week. Take notes on:
- What questions work well
- What context is missing
- What instructions need refinement
- What additional tools would help
Then iterate. Update the instructions. Add documents. Expand integrations.
The goal isn't a perfect system on day one. It's a system that improves with use—and that starts saving you time from conversation one.
WeGetDesign helps executives make better technology decisions. If you'd like guidance setting up an AI Council for your organisation, or want to explore what's possible with AI integration, reach out and book a call.
