FROM AI-NOVICE
TO AI-NATIVE.
Our 60-day plan to integrate AI across e-commerce, marketing, ops, and product. A working intelligence layer Pappy & Co. owns — built by an operator, measured honestly.
THE INTELLIGENCE LAYER
A portable intelligence layer for Pappy & Co.: skills as markdown, prompts as plain text, MCP connectors for live data, agnostic auth, an eval harness, and a back-end ROI dashboard. Anthropic-first. Never Anthropic-locked.
| Layer | Pappy & Co. Implementation |
|---|---|
| Enterprise model driver | Claude Teams — Sonnet/Opus across the operating team (Louise, Carrie, Jonathan, Christy, Kelcie, Kaitlyn, Brittany, Willy) with SSO, shared skills library, and centralized billing. |
| Creative & imaging stack | Adobe Photoshop + Illustrator + Adobe Firefly for AI-assisted product imaging, gift box mockups, social creative, and bourbon-cultural visual language — on-brand, no AI slop. 3 seats: Brittany, Kelcie, Kaitlyn. |
| Data + workflow connectors | MCP servers for Shopify Plus (retail + wholesale), Cin7 Core, Klaviyo, Attentive, Gorgias, GA4, Google Workspace, Recharge. |
| Voice + brand encoding | Pappy & Co. brand kit (Louisville / Van Winkle heritage, bourbon vernacular), tone profiles per channel, skill library — separate voice profiles for retail email, wholesale outreach, customer service, internal ops. |
| Phase Two — agent orchestration | Claude Agent SDK or Claude Managed Agents (Skills, subagents, Cowork) — head-of-staff agent + 5+ specialized agents per business function. |
FOUR STEPS. ONE INTELLIGENCE LAYER.
A working, documented, vendor-portable AI layer — built for the Pappy team.
ONBOARDING
Workflow audit across e-commerce, ops, marketing, wholesale, and CX.
- Stakeholder interviews (Louise, Carrie, Jonathan, Christy, Kelcie, Kaitlyn, Brittany, Willy)
- Data inventory across Shopify, Cin7, Klaviyo, Attentive, Gorgias, GA4, Recharge
- Security posture review — Claude Teams SSO, MCP scopes, PII boundaries
- Prioritized use-case backlog by impact × build effort
BRAND & VOICE
Encode Pappy's voice — Louisville, bourbon-cultural, Van Winkle heritage, premium-but-warm — into a portable system.
- Voice profiles per channel: retail email, wholesale outreach, CX, internal ops
- Portable system prompt + skill library
- Adobe Firefly trained against Pappy visual identity
- Signed scope for build
ARCHITECTURE
The intelligence layer itself — deployed, validated, training delivered.
- Claude Teams rollout with role-based skills
- MCP connectors built & validated (Shopify retail + wholesale, Cin7, Klaviyo, Attentive, Gorgias, GA4, Recharge)
- Skills library authored as markdown — wholesale bundles, Cerity reports, Gorgias macros, Klaviyo flows, product copy, cigar-sub playbook
- Adobe Firefly + Photoshop/Illustrator workflows configured
- Eval harness running on critical workflows
- Team training: day-to-day operation for each role
ONGOING HEALTH
The intelligence layer is a living system. We instrument it and measure honestly.
- Eval harness on critical workflows (CX quality, copy on-brand-ness, wholesale reply rates)
- Data freshness monitoring on MCP connectors
- Quarterly intelligence reviews
- Back-end ROI report — hours saved, revenue attributed, deflection rate, cycle time
- 12-month support included
A PREDICTABLE CADENCE.
A predictable cadence, not a black box. Eight weeks from kickoff to production handoff.
A WORKFORCE OF AGENTS.
When we're ready to go further. A specialized agent workforce wired into Pappy's workflows. Built on Claude Agent SDK or Claude Managed Agents — decision based on operational preference at the time of build.
| Agent | Primary Role | Connected Systems |
|---|---|---|
| WHOLESALE | Outreach drafts, account research, follow-ups, sell-sheet generation | Shopify Wholesale, Cin7, Google Workspace, Klaviyo |
| CX | Gorgias triage, draft replies in Pappy voice, escalation routing | Gorgias, Shopify, Recharge |
| RETENTION | Klaviyo + Attentive flow drafts, segment ideation, post-purchase journeys | Klaviyo, Attentive, Shopify, Recharge |
| OPS | Cin7 stock health, PO drafting, warehouse coordination, Cerity reporting | Cin7 Core, Shopify, Gmail |
| CREATIVE | Brief generation, copy variants, Firefly imagery prompts, asset routing | Adobe CC + Firefly, Google Drive, Shopify |
| CIGAR SUB | 2026 cigar-sub launch playbook, churn drafts, member comms | Recharge, Klaviyo, Shopify |
STATUS TRACKER
Click any status pill to cycle through stages. Your progress saves locally to this browser.
| Wk | Workstream | What ships | Owner | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Stakeholder Interviews | Louise, Carrie, Jonathan, Christy, Kelcie, Kaitlyn, Brittany, Willy — workflow audit per role | JONATHAN | |
| 1–2 | Data & Connector Audit | Shopify (retail + wholesale), Cin7, Klaviyo, Attentive, Gorgias, GA4, Recharge, Google Workspace | JONATHAN | |
| 1–2 | Security Posture Review | Claude Teams SSO, MCP scopes, PII boundaries, wholesale data boundaries | JONATHAN | |
| 1–2 | Use-Case Backlog | Prioritized by impact × build effort, ready for Louise sign-off | JONATHAN | |
| 3–4 | Architecture Diagram | Claude Teams + MCP + Adobe Firefly + Phase Two agent stack roadmap | JONATHAN | |
| 3–4 | Pappy Brand Kit + Voice Profiles | Voice profiles per channel — retail email, wholesale, CX, internal ops | CHRISTY | |
| 3–4 | Skill Library Outline | Wholesale bundles, Cerity reports, Gorgias macros, Klaviyo flows, product copy, cigar-sub playbook | JONATHAN | |
| 3–4 | Signed Build Scope | Walk through plan with Louise, alignment on Claude Teams seats + Adobe licensing | LOUISE | |
| 5–7 | MCP Connectors — Tier 1 | Shopify retail + wholesale, Cin7, Klaviyo, Gorgias built and validated | JONATHAN | |
| 5–7 | MCP Connectors — Tier 2 | Attentive, GA4, Recharge, Google Workspace | JONATHAN | |
| 5–7 | Skills Library Authored | Markdown skills shipped — portable from day one | JONATHAN | |
| 5–7 | Adobe Business Account | 3 seats — Brittany, Kelcie, Kaitlyn — Photoshop, Illustrator, Firefly Pro | BRITTANY | |
| 5–7 | Firefly Workflows Configured | Trained against Pappy visual identity; Zapier bridges Drive ↔ Firefly ↔ Shopify | BRITTANY | |
| 5–7 | Eval Harness Live | CX response quality, copy on-brand-ness, wholesale reply rates instrumented | JONATHAN | |
| 5–7 | Team Training (Role-Specific) | Day-to-day operation per role — Louise, Carrie, Christy, Kelcie, Kaitlyn, Brittany, Willy | CHRISTY | |
| 8 | Production Rollout | Claude Teams live across operating team with SSO + centralized billing | JONATHAN | |
| 8 | Welcome Guides | Role-specific operator guides — each person knows their first 5 workflows | CHRISTY | |
| 8 | ROI Dashboard Live | Hours saved, revenue influenced, deflection rate, cycle time | JONATHAN | |
| 8 | 12-Month Support Clock Starts | Quarterly reviews scheduled, data freshness monitors armed | JONATHAN | |
| 8 | Phase Two Trigger Defined | Suggested: 200+ hrs/qtr saved + 1.5× wholesale reply rate | JONATHAN |
TEAM & OWNERSHIP
Each function has a clear owner. Folder ownership maps to who can approve agent behavior and ship the workflow.
- Brand approval & voice standards
- Phase One scope sign-off
- Strategic direction & final say on heritage-anchored work
- Brand approval & voice standards
- Phase One scope sign-off
- Strategic direction & final say on heritage-anchored work
- Architecture & agent build
- MCP infrastructure
- Cross-functional integration
- Brand kit & voice profile ownership
- Claude Design
- Klaviyo & Attentive agents
- Meta design agents
- Adobe CC production
- Firefly imagery production
- Canva workflows & MCP
- Adobe CC production
- Firefly imagery production
- Canva workflows & MCP
- Google, Meta, TikTok data & workflows
- Google Analytics workflows & MCP
- Claude Design
- Adobe Business Account admin
- Firefly workflow ownership
- Canva workflows & MCP
- Adobe Business Account admin
- Firefly workflow ownership
- Creative agent partner
- Shopify MCPs
- Cin7 MCPs
- Canva workflows & MCP
- Wholesale agent design partner
- Pipeline / sell-sheet validation
- Apollo CRM
- LinkedIn MCP
HOW WE HANDLE IMAGES
Marketing and product development need on-brand, fast-turnaround creative without the AI-slop look. Three layers, each with a job.
ADOBE BUSINESS
Adobe Business Account with Photoshop, Illustrator, and full Firefly Pro access for the creative team.
Why Adobe: commercially safe outputs, full editing precision, integrates with the rest of our creative stack. Photoshop + Illustrator remain the workhorses; Firefly is the AI layer for fast generation and edits.
FIREFLY × ZAPIER
Firefly Pro integrated via Zapier to pull, edit, and push images across our stack — no manual download/upload cycle.
- Pull source images from Google Drive or Shopify product library
- User edits in Firefly with Image 2 or preferred LLM prompt
- Push refined image back to Drive folder and/or Shopify product variant
- Brand-aware presets so output matches the Pappy palette out of the gate
CLAUDE DESIGN
Claude's new Design feature gives us a powerful concepting tool inside the same environment we already use for everything else. Great for early-stage product, packaging, and marketing exploration.
- Rapid concepting for packaging & product dev (Brittany lead)
- Marketing layout exploration before committing to Adobe production
- Brand-kit-aware via the Pappy Co Brand Kit skill
- Stays inside the governance framework — no extra tool sprawl
WHY THIS COMBO
The honest answer: native image generation isn't where Claude competes — and we don't need it to. Firefly does generative images better than ChatGPT for commercial work (rights-clear, brand-tunable) and integrates directly with our existing Adobe stack.
Claude's job is reasoning, agents, and now Design for concepting. Firefly's job is production-grade visuals. Photoshop and Illustrator are the final mile. Each tool does what it does best — no AI slop, no rights ambiguity, no workflow rework.
ROI TOOLS
The dashboards and tools we'll use to measure AI impact and usage across the company. Real numbers, not vibes.
ANTHROPIC-FIRST.
NEVER ANTHROPIC-LOCKED.
Claude (Sonnet/Opus) is the best model for the structured, agentic work Pappy needs — voice-sensitive copy, multi-step ops workflows, customer-service triage, wholesale relationship drafting. But every artifact we build is portable:
- Skills as markdown
- Prompts as plain text
- MCP for data — model-agnostic
- Agnostic auth — SSO, not vendor-bound identity
- RAG indices built on open formats
TECH STACK
Every agent we build assumes this stack. No replacements — we wrap and extend.