Joel Brilliant · Brisbane, Australia
Am I a software engineer? No. Do I build things with AI? Every day.
I've been a tinkerer for a long time and around product and engineering teams for over a decade. I know when something isn't working, I direct the agents, and I verify what comes back. Then I share the useful bits so other curious people can get stuck in too.
What I've built
Built by getting stuck in.
I start with the problem, work with agents to build the thing, test it, break it, and keep going until the behaviour matches the idea. These are the ones that made it through.
What's real, what's illustrative
I don't write the code my agents ship. My bit is the idea, the product judgement, directing the work and checking the result. The products below are live or labelled with their actual status. Screenshots and worked examples marked synthetic keep private inbox, client and workplace data private. Time-saved numbers are estimates, not promises.
A plain-language guide to getting AI into the work you already do, with the safety, cost and checking steps left in.
Read it
An interview prep coach. Paste a real job ad and it tailors your CV, then runs you through practice answers with honest, scored feedback.
preppy.itsbrill.ai
A training platform that teaches recruiters and hiring managers to read interview answers for evidence, not gut feel.
Built for Sapia.ai
A working dashboard I run client implementation work through, talking to it in plain language while it does the work.
In daily use · concept shownReshaping how a real electrical contracting business runs day to day, turning manual, scattered systems into ones that mostly run themselves.
Ongoing client work
A sports intelligence engine that reads games before kickoff and grades its own calls.
brill.bet
The agent cockpit I use to run sessions across Hermes, Claude Code, Codex and Grok Build, with the work history in one place.
agents.itsbrill.aiA memory layer that lets my agents carry useful context between the tools I use.
Private infrastructureYou'll find more of it open source on GitHub.
Free guides
Start with the tool you've got.
If work has handed you Copilot, use the new guide. If you're choosing your own setup, start with How I actually use AI. Both are practical and honest about the bits that still need a human.
For people whose workplace pointed them at Copilot with almost no education. Work out what your account can do, build a portable working profile and turn one useful job into a repeatable one.
Read the Copilot guideA broader guide to prompting, context, safety, connectors, skills and the operating loop. Start here if you're building your own setup.
Read the broader guideHonest cost note
The guides are free. Some connected features sit behind a paid plan, a Microsoft 365 licence or an IT setting. I call those out when they matter instead of pretending every button exists for everyone.
Work with me
Want it set up around your work?
Bring the messy job. We'll pull it apart, work out where AI helps, and set it up around your inbox, calendar, documents or Copilot. You leave with a working setup and the notes to keep it running.
AI setup, one-on-one
We get on a call and build the first useful workflow together, with the safety and checking steps included.
About
A bit more about me.
I learnt all of this by getting stuck in and figuring it out myself.
I've co-founded and exited a coffee business, worked in fintech partnerships and spent more than a decade around product and engineering teams. These days I'm deep in enterprise AI, building with agents, working with customers and pulling apart whatever breaks.
That's what I like about AI. You don't need a degree or a course. You need curiosity, a willingness to learn and the ability to adapt when you get it wrong.
I'm also a gamer, an EDM fan, a CrossFit regular, a family bloke and a dog person. A unique nerd, basically.