AI automation that asks before it sends.
A new lead fills out your form at 9:40 on a Tuesday night. You’re at your kid’s game. We’re an AI automation consultant for small businesses, and that moment is the whole brief. An agent drafts the reply within minutes, and you approve it with 1 tap. So we find the 1 repetitive task worth handing off first, then build it on software you already pay for. Based in Indianapolis, building for owners anywhere in the country.
“Hi Dana, yes, we cover Carmel. 2 openings Thursday: 10 or 2. Which works better?”
One text, one link to your Google profile.
Calls and booked jobs on one page.
What an AI consultant does, and what it costs.
An AI automation consultant builds software that takes one repeated job off your plate. Answering new leads. Asking intake questions. Sending review requests. Pulling Monday’s numbers. A good one also tells you, plainly, which jobs to leave alone.
Independent AI consultants typically charge $150 to $250 an hour, and a defined small-business project usually runs $1,500 to $6,000, according to published rate guides.
Here at CPC, we price this the way we price everything. Ongoing automation work sits inside our published retainers of $1,200, $2,400, or $4,800 a month, with a 3-month minimum. A one-off build gets a fixed quote in writing before any work starts. Nonprofits get the reduced rate listed on the pricing page. If you ever leave, every automation and account we built stays with you, along with your data.
5 jobs worth handing to an agent.
Most owners we talk to want AI for the plain stuff: content, and fast replies to inquiries. Our list looks a lot like that. Each job below shows what the agent does and what a person still does. Both columns matter.
Lead follow-up in minutes
A form or a missed call comes in. Within minutes the lead gets a reply that answers the question they actually asked, plus 2 open times from your real calendar. Speed matters more than polish here.
Approves the wording once. Anything off-script, like a complaint or a big commercial bid, waits for a tap.
Intake without phone tag
Asks the same dozen questions you would, by text or on a form that talks back. It collects the address and photos, then books the visit.
Reads a one-paragraph brief before walking in. Takes over any thread the agent flags.
Review requests
The day a job closes, it sends one text with one link to your Google profile. One reminder. Then it stops.
Approves the message. Replies to new reviews from drafts the agent writes in your voice.
Reporting you don’t assemble
Every Monday at 7 a.m., it pulls calls, booked jobs, ad spend, and new reviews onto one page. No more 5 logins on a Sunday night.
Reads it in 2 minutes. Makes the call it points to.
Content drafts
Drafts the monthly customer email and the quote follow-up you keep forgetting, written from your real work in your voice.
Edits, then publishes. Nothing posts itself. Ever.
Already running a CRM? Review requests and missed-call text-back are often a GoHighLevel setup job, no custom agent required. We’ll tell you straight which one you need.
Your name is on it, so you sign off.
Here at CPC, we aren’t afraid of a hot take. An agent should sort and draft on its own, and anything a customer reads gets a human yes first.
Plenty of AI shops sell full autopilot because it demos well. Don’t get us wrong, autopilot is impressive. But for a small business it’s backwards. 1 strange automated text to a 10-year customer costs more trust than a hundred fast replies earn back. And approval takes a single tap on your phone, so you keep the speed.
The agent drafts. You press send.
1 automation first. Then we talk.
Every engagement opens with a scoping pass. We list the tasks you repeat and put your own hours next to each one. Then we pick the single build where being slow costs you real money. Usually that’s lead follow-up. It ships on software you already pay for, then runs for a few weeks with you approving everything. Only then do we propose a second build.
Now for the candid part. Plenty of AI projects shouldn’t exist. The same rate guides pass along a sobering pattern: most small-business AI engagements don’t pay for themselves in the first year. The usual cause is building something big before anyone mapped the chore. So sometimes our verdict is “keep the spreadsheet,” and we’d rather say that than bill you for a robot.
1 more admission. The first week of any agent is a little clumsy. Expect to correct it. That’s what the approval step is for.
- You do the task the same way almost every time.
- Being slow costs money. Lead follow-up is the classic case.
- Someone can check the output in seconds.
- The information already lives in a tool you own.
- It happens 2 times a month. A checklist is cheaper.
- Nobody will own the approvals. Unwatched automations drift.
- The real problem is your offer or your price. No agent fixes that, and we’ll tell you so on the call.
Scope your first build tonight.
The AI Opportunity Finder is our scoping pass, minus us. Pick your business type and check the tasks you still do by hand. Then set how many hours each one eats. It names your best first automation and adds up your own hours. No invented savings figures. Just your numbers, back to you.
If it says you don’t need an agent yet, believe it. We built the tool, so it’s also a fair sample of how we build.
- Pick your business type
- Check the tasks you still do by hand
- Set the hours each one takes
- Get your first automation, named
Indianapolis-based. Built for anywhere.
Local service businesses
Trades. Clinics. Salons. Shops. The leak is usually the lead nobody answered while the owner was up a ladder. If that’s you, our page for local businesses shows how this pairs with getting found on Google in the first place.
Founders and small teams
Right now you’re the bottleneck for intake and every follow-up. Automation buys back hours you’d otherwise hire for. Our page for founders covers the strategy work we pair it with.
Before you hand anything to a machine.
How much does an AI automation consultant cost for a small business?
Independent consultants bill by the hour or by the project. With us, ongoing automation work is part of the published monthly retainer: $1,200, $2,400, or $4,800, with a 3-month minimum. A one-off build gets a fixed written quote before any work starts.
What can an AI agent actually do in a 5-person business?
Honestly? Less than the ads suggest, and that’s fine. The dependable jobs are replying to new leads within minutes, running intake by text or form, sending review requests, assembling a weekly report, and drafting emails and posts. Each one works best on a task you already do the same way every day.
Will the AI send messages to my customers without me seeing them?
Not one we build. You approve the wording of routine replies up front, and anything unusual waits for a person to tap approve. Content drafts never publish on their own. If you want to loosen that rule later, that’s your call to make.
Do I need to buy new software first?
Usually not. We build on the inbox and calendar you already use. If your leads are scattered across texts and sticky notes, the better first move may be a proper CRM, and we’ll say so. That’s a GoHighLevel setup, and it has its own page.
Do you work with businesses outside Indianapolis?
Yes. We’re based in Indianapolis, and the AI and automation practice is national. We build over calls and shared screens, so a shop in Fishers and a startup in Denver get the exact same process.
Name the chore. We’ll scope it.
On a 30-minute discovery call, we’ll pick the 1 task worth automating first and sketch how it would run, approvals included. The sketch is yours to keep, hire us or not. We take 8 clients at a time, so if we’re full, we’ll tell you that too.