Background#
As part of our semester, our entire class had a visit from E.G. — a large estate with a wide range of activities and events. The visit gave us a chance to talk directly with the people running the place and get a feel for how they operate day-to-day.
One of the things that caught my attention was their annual Christmas market, where external vendors rent stalls and sell everything from handmade crafts to holiday decorations. It sounds straightforward — but behind the scenes, there is a surprising amount of coordination involved.
The Problem: An Inbox Full of Stall Requests#
Right now, anyone who wants to rent a stall at the Christmas market has to contact the owner directly by email. She then reads through every single enquiry and replies individually — confirming or declining each one by hand.
When the market is popular, that means dozens of back-and-forth emails to manage, no central overview of who has applied, and a lot of time spent on something that could largely run itself.
The Idea: A Vendor Application Form#
The fix does not need to be complicated. A simple form on E.G.’s existing website would let vendors fill in their details — name, contact info, what they sell, any practical requirements — and submit their application in one go.
On the owner’s side, instead of an inbox full of emails, she gets a clean list of all applicants where she can confirm or decline each one with a single click. The system then sends the appropriate response automatically.
The core flow would look like this:
Vendor fills out form on the website
↓
Application added to owner's dashboard
↓
Owner reviews and confirms or declines
↓
Vendor receives automatic confirmation or rejection emailNo inbox archaeology. No manually written replies. Just a list to work through.
Where AI Fits In#
The interesting part is that AI can add real value at several layers of a system like this — not just as a gimmick, but as something that actually solves problems.
1. Smarter Confirmation Emails#
Once a vendor is confirmed, a language model can use the data they submitted — name, product type, any special requirements — to generate a confirmation email that feels personal rather than templated:
“Hi Maren, your application has been approved! We’re looking forward to seeing your homemade Christmas wreaths at this year’s market. You’ll find all the practical details below…”
The owner clicks confirm once. The vendor gets a message that feels like it was written for them.
2. Answering Vendor Questions#
A simple chat assistant on E.G.’s website — trained on their rules, FAQ, and practical info — could handle 80% of the questions vendors ask, without anyone at E.G. needing to respond manually.
3. AI as a Tool for the Developer#
And this is what actually surprised me most when thinking through the E.G. case: AI is not only useful inside the system. It is also useful during development.
When mapping out the form fields and the owner’s dashboard, I used Claude to:
- Ask the questions I had not thought to ask myself
- Draft template emails based on my description of the audience
- Suggest edge cases (“what happens if a vendor cancels two days before the market?”, “should declined applicants be able to reapply?”)
It accelerated the design phase significantly. Instead of sitting alone trying to think things through, I had a sounding board that could quickly generate alternatives and point out gaps.
Other Systems E.G. Could Benefit From#
Beyond the application form, there are other areas where structured thinking and simple tooling could make a real difference:
| Area | Current problem | Possible solution |
|---|---|---|
| Booking management | Manual handling of enquiries | Simple booking app with calendar integration |
| Payment overview | Unclear who has paid what | Automated invoicing with a status dashboard |
| Internal communication | No overview across events | A lightweight internal notification system |
| Vendor feedback | No structured post-event evaluation | Automatic follow-up email with a feedback form |
None of these require advanced technology — but they do require someone to think them through and build them properly.
What I Took Away#
Visiting E.G. as a class was my first real encounter with a customer who does not know exactly what they are missing — only that something feels laborious. That is a fundamentally different problem than building to a specification.
It taught me that system design starts with listening, and that the best solutions are often the ones that remove work rather than add features.
And it reinforced something I keep coming back to: AI is not a plugin you bolt on at the end. It can sit at the table from the very beginning — from idea through to implementation.