Systems & automation

Business automation with an AI agent

Business automation with an AI agent: replies to new inquiries, quotes, invoices and reminders come to you ready. Nothing reaches a customer until you approve.

Message us on WhatsApp What it does

Opens a record for every new inquiry, in the customer list you already have
Quotes, invoices and reminders reach you ready, on WhatsApp
No quote or message goes to a customer without your approval, until you decide otherwise

Your agent is set up and supported by Shahaf Platin of Platin Digital, who builds AI agents for businesses after 12 years in websites and marketing.

Illustration: how it looks, from your request to your approval

Monday, 9:40 PM

A new inquiry from your website: "200 T-shirts with a logo"

Today, by hand

Tomorrow morning, if nobody forgets

Someone on your team types the inquiry into the customer list
Looks up the prices in the price list
Puts a quote together
Sends it to the customer
And has to remember to follow up on Friday

With an AI agent (a digital assistant)

The same evening, 9:41 PM

The customer already has a record in your customer list
The quote and the reply are waiting for you on WhatsApp, with a "Send" button
No phone number on the form? The agent asks for it in the reply, and tells you it’s missing
No answer by Thursday? It reminds you

This is small business automation with an AI agent: the office work that comes back every day is already done, and waits only for your approval.

What an AI agent is

Software that works for you like an office assistant. You message it on WhatsApp with what needs doing, and it does it in the email, spreadsheets, customer list (CRM) and invoicing software you already have.

The work it takes on

It opens a record for every new inquiry, prepares quotes and invoices, and drafts reminders for customers who haven’t paid. Work that someone on your team does by hand today.

What stays with you

Anything that goes to a customer or costs money comes to you first for approval. And you can see a list of everything it has done.

How you start

With one task. In a test on your real work it only prepares, and you check. When you’re happy, we add the next task.

The work it does for you

Six examples of work that businesses hand over. You explain it once, and the agent does it every time.

New inquiries

You message it on WhatsApp, once

"Every new inquiry from the website, WhatsApp or email: open a customer record and draft a first reply"

From then on, every time

Checks whether the customer is already in your customer list
Opens a customer record, or adds the inquiry to the existing one
Drafts a first reply and sends it to you for approval
Reminds you to get back to the customer

Quotes

You message it on WhatsApp, once

"Prepare a quote from our price list, and send it to me before it goes out"

From then on, every time

Finds what the customer asked for in the price list
Flags anything that has no price
Sends you the quote for approval

Supplier orders

You message it on WhatsApp, once

"When a job is confirmed, prepare a supplier order for what it needs"

From then on, every time

Reads the quote the customer approved to see what has to be ordered
Prepares the supplier order, based on your last order from them
Sends it to you for approval

Invoices and late payments

You message it on WhatsApp, once

"After every job we deliver, prepare an invoice, and tell me who hasn’t paid after 30 days"

From then on, every time

Prepares the invoice in your invoicing software, and you approve it
Sends you a list of who still hasn’t paid
Drafts a reminder for each of them, sent once you approve

Weekly summary

You message it on WhatsApp, once

"Every Monday morning: how many inquiries came in, how many quotes went out, and what we won"

From then on, every time

Pulls the numbers from your apps
Sends you a short summary, with what changed since last week

Tools for your team

You message it on WhatsApp, once

"Build us a quote calculator for the team"

From then on, every time

Builds, once, a simple page that opens on a phone: type a quantity, get a price
Connects it to your price list and customer list
Updates it when something changes on your side

It can also build what you’re missing, such as a task board for the team or a report none of your apps produce.

One inquiry, from the form to the quote

The example from the top of the page, step by step. Say you run a print shop, and you told the agent once: "Every new inquiry from the website: open a customer record, prepare a quote and send it to me for approval."

The inquiry arrives
A customer fills in the form on your website and writes: "200 T-shirts with a logo, by the end of the month." They left an email address but no phone number. The agent reads the inquiry the moment it’s sent.
Customer record
It checks whether the customer is already in your customer list. They aren’t, so the agent opens a new customer record and notes the request in it.
Quote
- 200 T-shirts
- Logo printing
- Delivery
Priced for one color. Check with the customer
3
The quote
It finds T-shirts and logo printing in your price list and works out the price for 200 units. The customer didn’t say how many colors the logo has, so it prices for one color, and says so in the quote.
It comes to you for approval
You get the quote on WhatsApp, along with the message to the customer, in which the agent asks for a phone number and the logo file. It also reminds you the customer needs the shirts by the end of the month. Two buttons: send or edit. If you edit, it remembers the correction for next time.
Sending and reminder
You approve, and the quote goes to the customer. The customer record shows it was sent. No answer after three days? You get a reminder, with a follow-up message waiting for your approval.

After a few weeks in which you haven’t corrected anything, you can decide that small quotes go out without asking you. It’s your decision, and you can change it at any time.

What happens when something goes wrong

Ordinary automation, the kind that moves information from one app to another, does only what it was set up to do. When something else happens, it stops, or carries on with a mistake. The agent understands what you were trying to get done, and either finds a way or asks you. Five cases that happen in every business:

The customer wrote the request in the notes field

Ordinary automationThe quote goes out empty

AI agentFinds the request in the notes and prepares the quote

The same customer got in touch twice, once on the website and once by email

Ordinary automationThey appear twice in your customer list

AI agentRecognizes it’s the same customer and adds the inquiry to the existing record

The customer asked for something that isn’t in the price list

Ordinary automationStops, or skips the item without saying so

AI agentPrepares the quote without the item, and asks you what it costs

You changed the form on your website

Ordinary automationStops working until someone fixes it

AI agentReads the new form, keeps working, and tells you the form has changed

Your invoicing software is down

Ordinary automationThe invoice isn’t prepared, and nobody knows

AI agentTries again later, and messages you if the problem continues

To avoid surprises, it can touch only what we’ve set up for it, and there is a written list of the things it does only after you approve. When ordinary automation is enough and when you need an agent is covered in our guide Business automation: train, triage desk or taxi.

What it does on its own and what comes to you for approval

You decide which things it does without asking. Money always stays with you.

On its own

Reads forms, emails and documents
Opens and updates customer records and spreadsheets
Prepares quotes, orders and messages, and sends them to you
Sends a customer a standard first reply, if you’ve decided it goes out without asking
Sends you summaries and reminders
Logs everything it does

Prepares and asks

Any other message to a customer, and every quote, until you decide otherwise
Issuing an invoice
Ordering from a supplier
Changing the way a job is done
Anything that costs money

No access

Passwords and card details
Moving money
Deleting anything that can’t be restored
Adding or removing users in your apps
Anything you didn’t ask us to connect, such as your bank account or personal email

Approval requests reach you wherever suits you: WhatsApp, Telegram or email. One message, with what it prepared and what it’s asking to do. Our rule of thumb for what can go out on its own, once you’ve decided so: a standard message such as "Got it, we’ll be in touch," and a price that’s written in your price list. A quote, a special price or a commitment comes to you first, unless you’ve decided otherwise. How we keep your business information safe is explained in our article on AI agent security.

The apps it works with

It works in the apps you already have. You don’t need to replace your invoicing software or your customer list for it. These are examples of what we connect. Can’t see yours? Send us its name and we’ll check.

Email and calendar

Gmail
Google Calendar
Outlook

Spreadsheets and files

Google Sheets
Google Drive
Excel and Word (Microsoft 365)

Customers and tasks

monday.com
Trello

Invoices

Your invoicing software

Website and store

WordPress
WooCommerce
Elementor
Shopify

Messaging

WhatsApp
Telegram

We connect it through each app’s official connection, meaning the way the app itself offers for other software to connect to it. The agent gets its own username there, and can do only what the job needs. Not every app allows every action, so we check on the intro call, before anyone commits. When an app has no official connection, there is sometimes another way, such as a file it exports every day or an email it sends on its own. If there’s no safe way, we tell you.

Getting started: from the first call to a working agent

Five steps, one task at a time.

Intro call
We need you here
Together we go through the work that comes back every week, and pick one task to start with. Not necessarily the biggest, but one where a mistake doesn’t go straight to a customer. On the same call we check that your apps allow it.
Connecting
We connect the agent to your apps. It has its own username in each one, so you can see what it did, and it can be disconnected without touching anyone on your team. The agent itself runs on a separate computer in the cloud.
Test on real work
We need you here
It gets real inquiries, orders or documents of yours from recent weeks, and prepares what it would have prepared. Nothing is sent. You compare with what you actually did, and tell it what to fix.
It starts working
We need you here
When most of what it prepares gets through without corrections, it starts on new inquiries, the way we agreed: what it does on its own and what comes to you for approval.
Ongoing support
We regularly check what it did and where it got stuck, fix things when one of your apps changes, and add the next task only when the previous one runs smoothly.

In the first weeks everything still goes through you, even once the task is working. How long each step takes is covered in the questions further down the page. What to prepare in advance is in our guide to building an AI agent for your business.

An office employee, a freelancer or an AI agent

Three ways to get the daily office work off your plate:

An office employee

Full-time or part-time

When there’s a new task: You explain it once
When something unexpected happens: Decides alone or asks you
When the work gets done: During working hours
Who keeps it running: You
Copying from app to app: By hand
What you pay: A monthly salary

A freelancer who links your apps

A project for every need

When there’s a new task: A new project and a new quote
When something unexpected happens: The link stops until it’s fixed
When the work gets done: Around the clock, until something breaks
Who keeps it running: The freelancer, when available
Copying from app to app: Only what was built in advance
What you pay: A fee per project

An AI agent

We connect and support it

When there’s a new task: You send it a message
When something unexpected happens: Fills in what’s missing or asks you
When the work gets done: Around the clock, nights included
Who keeps it running: We do, as part of support
Copying from app to app: The agent does it, in every app we connected
What you pay: A one-time setup fee and a monthly fee

In practice, an agent like this can replace the freelancer who links your apps, and sometimes part of an office job: typing in inquiries, preparing quotes, sending reminders. At night, too, it only prepares: whatever goes to a customer waits for your approval. Thought about building automation yourself? We compared the two routes in n8n or an AI agent.

When it isn’t a fit

Four situations where it’s better not to start:

There isn’t much repeat work

If it takes you an hour or two a month, the setup won’t pay for itself.

There’s no way into your software

Software installed only on an office computer, with no official connection, that exports no file and sends no email, leaves the agent no way to work in it.

It’s hard to say what good work looks like

If you can’t explain what a correct quote looks like in your business, there’s no way to check the agent. Or a new employee, for that matter.

You expect it to decide on money alone

Payments, refunds and money transfers stay with you. It prepares, and you approve and pay.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to change software to work with an agent?

No. It works in the customer list, invoicing software, store and email you already have. On the intro call we check that each app lets it do what the job needs.

We already have automations. What happens to them?

Whatever works keeps working, and we don’t touch it. We start with work you still do by hand. If an existing automation gets stuck often, that can move to the agent as well.

What happens if the agent makes a mistake?

In the test on your real work it only prepares, and you see everything before anything goes out. After that, too, whatever goes to a customer or costs money comes to you first. When a mistake turns up, we fix what caused it, so it doesn’t happen again. And there’s a list of everything it did, so you can always see what happened.

Where is our business information kept, and who sees it?

Your information is kept on a separate cloud computer used only by your business, and isn’t mixed with any other business’s. Some of it passes to the company that provides the AI, because without that the agent can’t read or write. Before connecting, we agree with you on what that company may do with the information. And you can disconnect the agent at any time.

How long until it starts working?

A first, simple task, in one or two well-known apps, can be working within three days of connecting, with everything it prepares still coming to you for approval. Several tasks together, including the test on your real work, take one to two months.

How much does automation with an AI agent cost?

You pay once for the setup, then a monthly fee for ongoing support. There is also a monthly charge for using the AI itself, and it appears in the proposal you receive. You get an exact price in writing before we start. How to weigh that against the hours the work takes today is in our article How much does an AI agent for business cost.

How do we give it a new task?

You send it a message, wherever suits you: WhatsApp, Telegram or email. It does a one-off task right away, and anything going to a customer still waits for your approval. A new regular task first goes through a test on your real work, like the first one did.

Can it build new software for us?

Yes, when it’s a tool for your team rather than a product for customers: a quote calculator, a task board, an internal form or a report none of your apps produce. The tool is connected to your price list and customer list, and the agent updates it when something changes.

Which job would you hand over first?

Message us on WhatsApp with what eats most of your time in the office. We’ll tell you whether an agent can take it on, and what would stay with you. No commitment.

Message us on WhatsApp

Shahaf Platin

Who sets up your agentShahaf Platin builds and supports AI agents for businesses at Platin Digital, with 12 years of experience in websites, marketing and digital. Platin Digital is an OpenAI Select Partner.

More things the agent does

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