Where AI would actually help you and where it would not.

Good instinct, and no. Three of the five headings in the summary make me nothing: what to cancel, what you already own, and what to buy from someone else. If you should spend nothing, that is what the summary says.

Quoting and follow-up, answering the same handful of customer questions, chasing invoices, copying information between two systems that do not talk, and writing the same message over and over. Often the fix is not AI at all: it is a page that answers the question, or a setting in software you already pay for. Sometimes it is something worth building, like a ballpark estimator so customers stop phoning to ask what things cost.

No, and I would rather be blunt about it than have it come up later. The fee buys the hour and the summary. If the answer turns out to be an estimator on your site, an after-hours assistant, or setting up a tool properly, that gets its own quote with a number on it before anything starts, and it is priced on its own rather than discounted by what you already paid. You are also completely free to take the summary and have someone else build it.

No. This is about how your business runs, not your website. That said, a lot of what I find does live on a website: an estimator so people stop calling for prices, a page that answers your five most-asked questions, or something that answers after hours when you are closed. Those get flagged as build work with a number beside them, and you are free to take that list to anyone.

It stays between us. I am one person in Castlegar. Nothing you tell me gets fed into a tool, sold, or used for anything except writing your summary.

Then I tell you that, you keep the summary, and you have saved yourself from spending money on something that would not have worked. I would rather give you an honest no than sell you a yes.

Usually fewer than you think, and only ones tied to a job you already do every week. Start with one general assistant such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for writing and questions. Add a specialised tool only when one specific job keeps eating your time. Before buying anything new, list what you already pay for, because some of those tools have added AI features you may not be using yet.

Neither is better for every business. Both handle everyday writing, summarising and questions well, and the differences show up in specific jobs, such as long documents or the other tools each one connects to. Pick the one that fits how you already work, try it on a real task for a week, and pay for one plan. Whichever you choose, it answers far better once it can read your prices, process and policies.

Sometimes, and usually by doing a job inside a tool you already pay for. The common wins are writing, summarising, first drafts of quotes and answering the same questions again and again. Accounting, payroll, booking and point-of-sale software usually stay, because they hold records and follow rules an assistant does not. The useful first step is listing every subscription and what you actually use it for.