AI workflows · small team specialists

Practical AI for the operators the agencies skip.

Cogsmith designs AI chatbots and workflow automations for small businesses that can’t justify a full operations hire. Anchored on a single underserved vertical — a chat front door on top of the Zapier, Make, or n8n stack you already pay for, with a quarterly audit that keeps your compliance officer comfortable.

$500–$5,000 / month retainer · $3K–$15K setup · no offshore reselling

ChatGPT front door connecting to Zapier, Make, and n8n automation stacksYour customersSMS · web · voicemailCogsmith bottrained on your SOPsQuarterly AI auditgovernance packZapierMaken8n→ fewer dropped enquiries, more billable hours

The shape of every engagement: a chat front door, your existing automation stack, a quarterly governance pass.

Why a boutique, not an agency

We are deliberately small, so the founder ships the work.

50

Accounts, by design

Past fifty, the founder stops being on the work. The cap keeps delivery honest.

2–4

Automations in production

Enough to move a real number on the P&L. Fewer than that is a slide deck, more is a budget conversation.

90

Days between audits

Every quarter, a written governance memo. The deliverable your compliance asker will request.

How an engagement runs

Four steps. No bait-and-switch to a junior team in week three.

Every engagement follows the same shape so you can scope, budget, and book around it. We do the same work for every client; what changes is the vertical context and the systems we wire into.

  1. 01

    Discovery sprint

    Two weeks in your business. We map every enquiry, follow-up, and back-office task that currently eats a human hour. You walk away with a ranked automation backlog in plain English.

  2. 02

    Automations in production

    Two to four workflows live against your real stack: booking, intake, invoice chase, lead routing, document assembly. We wire the existing tools — not a new platform for you to learn.

  3. 03

    Trained chatbot

    A ChatGPT-powered front door scoped to the questions your customers actually ask. Managed prompts, escalation to a human, audit trail on every reply.

  4. 04

    Quarterly audit

    A governance pass every 90 days: drift review, prompt revisions, model change notes. The deliverable your compliance officer (or your insurer) is going to ask for.

Case ledger

What shipped, what changed, in plain numbers.

Three engagements on the books right now

Dental clinic · 12-chair

No-show follow-up + recall reminders
Missed-appointment recovery and six-month recall runs were handled by reception. Both now run on Make against the practice management system; reception handles exceptions only.

9 hrs / week

returned to chair-side work

Independent brokerage · 7 agents

Lead intake + listing distribution
New portal enquiries landed in five inboxes and got triaged by whoever noticed first. Now they hit n8n, get scored, and arrive in the right agent’s queue within two minutes.

4× faster

enquiry-to-agent response

Small firm · 3 partners

Client intake + conflict checks
Intake forms were emailed, conflict checks were manual, and engagement letters went out the next morning. The whole chain now runs through Zapier with prompts that summarise each new matter.

Same-day

engagement letters, every matter

Verticals we focus on

One underserved vertical per cycle, gone deep on.

The shape of the buyer matters as much as the shape of the work. These three are where the hours we save translate directly into billable chair time, listings closed, and matters handled.

  • Dental clinics

    Recall cycles, no-show recovery, insurance claim follow-up, intake Triage.

  • Independent real estate brokerages

    Lead routing, listing distribution, vendor follow-up, open-house capture.

  • Small law firms

    Conflict checks, intake triage, engagement-letter workflows, matter summaries.

Not in those three? Join the waitlist →

Stack we work with

Your existing platforms, with a chat front door.

We don’t sell a new platform. We bolt ChatGPT onto the Zapier, Make, or n8n subscription you already pay for, against the practice-management or CRM system you actually use.

Front door

ChatGPT + custom-trained prompts

Automation

Zapier · Make · n8n

Records

Your existing PMS / CRM / case mgmt

Governance

Quarterly audit memo + reply log

Engagement & pricing

One retainer shape, sized to your backlog.

We sit inside the mainstream $3K–$15K setup-plus-retainer band. The differentiator is vertical depth, documented case studies, and a roster small enough that the founder ships your work.

Typical engagement

$3K–$15K setup · $500–$5K / month
Discovery sprint, two to four production automations, a trained chatbot, and a quarterly AI audit.
≤ 50 clients

Setup (one-time)

  • Discovery sprint, ~2 weeks
  • Backlog report in plain English
  • 2–4 automations in production
  • Custom-trained chatbot live

Retainer (monthly)

  • Hosting + monitoring of automations
  • Prompt revisions as your SOPs change
  • Reply log + human escalation queue
  • Quarterly AI-audit memo

Frequently asked

The questions a careful buyer asks before signing.

If yours isn’t here, write to us — we read every email and reply same business day.

Talk to us

If your backlog has more than four hours a week, it’s worth a call.

One call, thirty minutes. If we’re not the right fit we’ll say so and point you at someone who is. No funnel, no follow-up nurture sequence.

Talk to us

Where one call is worth the founder's calendar block.
We take on dental clinics, independent real-estate brokerages, and small law firms — one firm at a time, so the founder ships your engagement. Retainers run $500–$5,000 / month on a roster capped at 50 accounts, which is why we say no on the first call when the fit isn't right.

We reply from a real inbox — never an automated sequence.

One reply, one business day. We'll tell you on the call if the fit isn't right and point you at someone who is.