Questions about AI for a small business

Asked by shop owners, caterers, clinics and workshops in Tamil Nadu. Answered plainly, including the half that is about what it will not do.

Can AI reply to my WhatsApp messages?

Yes, and this is the one most small businesses start with. It reads the message, answers out of your own price list, and hands the conversation to you the moment it is asked something it does not have. It works at one in the morning, which is when a good half of the messages to a shop actually arrive.

Will it answer my customers in Tamil?

Tamil, English, and the mixture of the two that people actually write. It replies in whichever your customer used. Your own price list can be written either way, or photographed off a notebook page - it reads that and answers from it.

How much does AI cost for a small business in India?

From Rs 2,000 a month. The one-off setup starts at Rs 15,000 and is quoted on your own business - what it does, and how much of it you want taken on Bigger builds are quoted on what they are. There is nothing to pay before you have seen it work: it runs for a week writing down what it would have said and sending none of it, and you decide after reading those.

What can AI NOT do for my business?

It cannot decide a price, agree to anything in your name, move money, or judge a customer you have known for ten years. It cannot know what you have not written down, and it will say so rather than invent an answer. Anybody selling you full automation is selling you the part that goes wrong quietly.

What if it tells my customer something wrong?

It answers out of your material or it stops. When a question is half a match - somebody asks for a dish that is nearly one on your menu - it asks which one rather than guessing, because a wrong price quoted confidently costs you the customer and the trust. Every question it could not answer becomes a list for you: those are the lines missing from your own price list, written by your own customers.

Do I need a computer, or somebody to run it?

No. It runs on the number and the pages you already have, and you look at it on the phone in your pocket. There is nothing to install and nobody to hire. You approve what it wants to send until you are happy to let it answer on its own.

Is my customers' information safe?

Your price list, your messages and your customers are kept separately from every other business we work with - not by being careful, but because the software cannot reach across. Nothing is sold, nothing is used to train anything, and you can have all of it back or deleted whenever you ask.

How long before it is working?

Days for the simple things, a few weeks for the ones that have to know your business properly. The first week of that is it watching: it works out what it would say and sends none of it, so you read a week of real replies before a customer sees one.

Do I have to change my phone number?

No. It answers on the number your customers already have.

Can I stop whenever I want?

Yes. There is no contract to sign and no notice to give. You switch it off, and your price list and your records are yours to take with you.