My client's business was down. He didn't even know.

Client Issue

I needed access to a client’s website just to map the pages, and I ended up using AI to solve the problem in the easiest way possible. Yesterday I got access to the client’s host and discovered the website was down with a 503 error. The client didn’t even know the site had problems. The site was supposed to sell products and attract organic traffic, so the outage was a huge issue that no one was aware of.

Technical Fix

The site looked fine, but it had more files than the hosting plan allowed. I had to delete about 16 GB of old backups and cache files. First I made a full backup of the website, then I cleaned out the unnecessary backups and cache. I used AI through an FTP connection to identify and remove the files securely, and the website came back online. The fix was simple and I completed it in one afternoon.

AI as Lever

The speed came from using AI, but the “arm” was my knowledge. I have four years of experience working with sites like this, so I knew exactly what to do. AI didn’t solve the problem on its own; it accelerated a process I already understood. While I was handling other tasks, AI took care of the file cleanup.

Learning Takeaway

Solving the problem once turned it into a skill that I can now train the AI to perform automatically. The process will be easier in the future because the AI can handle it on its own. The lesson is that your knowledge should be used to train AI and improve your work. Don’t rely on AI for things you don’t understand, keep studying and improving yourself, and AI will become the best lever you have.