How to set up an AI assistant for your website in 10 minutes

Consider this: most visitors land on your website outside your working hours. If they can't get an answer quickly, they move on. An AI assistant answers straight away, any time of day. No scripts or stilted automation—it draws answers from your own knowledge base, so customers get real, business-specific information. If it doesn't know something, it hands off to you.

The practical benefits are immediate. You recover time because the assistant filters and qualifies enquiries. It books meetings directly into your Google Calendar, so no more email ping-pong. It captures contact details and stores them (in a way that respects GDPR, because you're a UK business). It works on your website widget, and Telegram integration is available now (WhatsApp and Instagram are coming soon). Leads that once slipped through the cracks now arrive in your system, qualified and ready.

Start with a free 3-day trial—no card required. You'll answer a few questions about your business (what you do, what problems you solve) in about 2 minutes. Be specific. Don't just say 'plumbing'—say 'burst pipe repairs, boiler servicing, and planned maintenance across Greater Manchester'. The assistant uses Anthropic's Claude, so it understands context and industry nuance naturally.

Next, upload your knowledge base (5 minutes). This is what makes it work: FAQs, service descriptions, pricing, team bios, case studies—whatever your customers ask about. You can paste text, upload a PDF, or link a Google Doc. No manual tagging needed. Then connect your Google Calendar for bookings, optionally integrate with HubSpot, Stripe, Google Sheets, or webhooks (3 minutes). Click 'Go Live' and your widget is on your website.

The assistant only answers from information you provide. That's the safety feature. Upload your existing documents—no restructuring needed. A gym might add class timetables and membership details. A consultant adds service descriptions and case studies. A product business adds the catalogue. The system indexes everything instantly and learns what information answers which questions.

Specificity matters because it affects accuracy. 'We fix computers' is vague. 'We repair Windows laptops, fix malware, recover lost files, and sell refurbished MacBooks' is what the assistant learns from. The better you describe your business, the better it answers. And if a question sits outside your knowledge base, the assistant says so and offers to hand off to a human—it never guesses or makes things up.

Link your Google Calendar and visitors can book slots directly from the chat. The assistant checks availability, presents free times, and blocks them automatically. No separate booking link, no back-and-forth emails. For CRM and workflow, you can connect HubSpot (logs enquiries), Stripe (confirms payments), Google Sheets (tracks leads), or custom webhooks. Most UK small businesses use one or two of these already, so integration is quick.

You also set the handoff rules. If the assistant doesn't know something, should it ask for an email, offer a phone number, or suggest booking a meeting? You decide. The assistant knows its limits and steps back gracefully. Complex consultations, complaints, and high-value opportunities still reach you immediately—automation handles the pattern-based 80% and frees you for the human 20%.

Once it's running, a dashboard shows what customers actually ask. You see patterns: maybe 40% ask about delivery times, 20% want pricing for a specific package, 10% have accessibility questions. This is market research. Most businesses use it to improve website copy, refine offerings, or brief their sales team. You also have a record of every enquiry—customer name, question, and how it was handled—which surfaces trends, seasonal demand, and gaps in your offering.

Lead logging is automatic and GDPR-compliant because you're UK-hosted on UK infrastructure. You own the data, and it's not sent to America. That matters for compliance and trust, especially if your customers are other UK businesses.

An AI assistant isn't a replacement for your personal touch. High-value consultations, technical problems, complaints, and edge cases still need you. It's brilliant at routine enquiries—'What are your hours?', 'Do you cover my postcode?', 'Can I book a slot Thursday morning?'—and it frees you to spend real time on customers who need your expertise. If you can't describe what you do in a few sentences, the assistant will struggle. But that's actually useful feedback: clarity here often reveals gaps in your marketing anyway.