A tradesman leaning on his work truck in the late-afternoon sun, smiling as he speaks a voice note into his phone
Custom AI business assistants · South Africa

Most AI tools start with the tech. I start with your business.

Twenty years of solving business problems, now going into custom AI assistants built around how you actually work. Not the other way round.

The problem

Your business runs on six apps, a notebook and your memory.

None of it talks to each other, so you are the integration. That works until you are busy, which is the only time it matters.

  • Quotes that take until Thursday. By which time the customer has found someone who replied on Tuesday.
  • Enquiries that go cold. Nobody followed up. You meant to.
  • Evenings lost to admin that should have been finished at four in the afternoon.
  • Apps, notebooks and spreadsheets that each know a bit and never compare notes.
  • Things slipping through the cracks. Usually the important ones.
A cluttered desk at night: handwritten notebooks, sticky notes, a calculator, loose invoices and a phone full of unread notifications
Sound familiar?
The answer

One assistant. Built around your business.

Everything connected in one place, so it can see the whole picture and think ahead, instead of waiting for you to remember to ask.

It sees the whole picture

Clients, jobs, quotes, payments and appointments live in one place. Not scattered over six tools that have never met.

It suggests and drafts

Draft emails and reminders get prepared for you. You read them, fix them if you like, and decide.

You always approve

Nothing is sent or deleted without your OK. It is an assistant, not a loose cannon with your email password.

See it work

Say it once. It’s sorted.

Talk to it the way you’d talk to a person: in the van, between jobs, with one hand free.

  • 1It works out what you meant. A task, a reminder or an appointment, filed where it belongs.
  • 2It checks for clashes before they turn into two customers standing at the same gate.
  • 3It asks before it does anything that matters. You stay in charge.

An example conversation. The names and details are made up.

Why me

Not a newcomer who just discovered AI.

Early in my career I worked inside a software company, next to a systems architect, sitting through business analysis and application development meetings. The job was always the same: understand the problem properly, find the business solution, then build it.

Twenty years of web development, design and custom solutions have followed. Some of them were custom code. Some were a smart combination of a CMS and the right plugins. All of them were judged on one thing: did it save the client real time and money?

Today I run my own business daily on an AI assistant I built myself. It is called Kailee, and it is the reason I can tell you what works and what doesn’t.

20 yrs
Solving business problems with web, design and custom solutions
Daily
I run my own business on an assistant I designed and built
What it can do

Built, working and in daily use.

Everything on this list already exists and runs. None of it is a roadmap slide.

Voice notes into action

Talk to it. Tasks, reminders and appointments come out the other end.

Quotes and invoices

Generated as branded PDFs and emailed to the client.

Payment tracking

Who has paid and who hasn’t, tracked in one place.

All client info in one place

History, jobs and contact details, together in one place.

Appointment clash warnings

Spots the double-booking before the double-booking spots you.

Emails drafted for review

It writes the draft. You read it and send it.

Website chat assistant

Answers visitors, flags hot leads, and lets you take over the conversation live.

Business trip logging

GPS trip logging, with a year-end logbook your accountant can use.

Shared team reminders

One reminder, the right people, nobody saying “I thought you had it”.

Other things we can build

Possibilities, not promises.

These are the kinds of things that come up during discovery. They aren’t off-the-shelf features: each one gets scoped, quoted and built for your business, and only if it earns its place.

How it works

Three steps. You see the price before you commit to the next one.

Step 1

Discovery

Find out exactly where an assistant would make the biggest difference.

R1,200once-off

Fully credited against your build if you go ahead.

  • Discovery questionnaire
  • A working session on your daily process
  • Written report: time drains, automation opportunities and priorities
  • A fixed scope and quote for your build
Step 2

Build

Your assistant, designed, built, tested and set up for you.

fromR8,500fixed quote

Starter builds focus on 1–2 core jobs. Can be split over 3 monthly payments.

  • Custom assistant built around your agreed priorities
  • Voice and/or chat interface on your phone or computer
  • Connected to the tools you already use, where possible
  • Setup, onboarding and 30 days of fine-tuning
Step 3

Care plan

Keeps it running, improving and growing with your business.

fromR750per month

Includes standard AI usage. Heavy usage is quoted separately.

  • Hosting, monitoring and security updates
  • AI and voice running costs (within your plan)
  • Fixes when connected tools change
  • Small tweaks as your needs change

The final quote is set after discovery, and the monthly plan scales with how much you use the assistant. Prices exclude any third-party software subscriptions your business already pays for. The underlying assistant framework remains the property of Paul Russell Designs and is licensed for your use.

Who it’s for

  • Owner-run businesses where you are the bottleneck
  • Teams drowning in repetitive admin and follow-ups
  • Anyone who knows AI could help but doesn’t know where to start

Your data

  • Built with POPIA in mind from day one
  • You decide what it can see, do and send
  • Your business data stays yours
Try it

Don’t take my word for it. Ask the assistant on this site.

The chat bubble on this page is a smaller sibling of what I build: a custom assistant with its own knowledge of my business. Ask it what it can do, what things cost, or whether this is right for you. If the conversation gets interesting, I can step in live.

Look for the chat bubble, bottom right
A family laughing together at the dinner table in the evening, the laptop closed at the end of the table
Evenings are for this.

Book a discovery chat. Find out where an assistant would give you hours back.

Discovery questionnaire

Your AI assistant questionnaire

Your details

Start with your details, then work through the questions. Rough notes are perfect and you can skip anything that doesn’t apply.