4 min read · updated 2026-10-18
What should you prepare before an AI or automation build?
Short answer
Send the answers the assistant is allowed to give, access to the calendar or CRM in an account you own, and one real enquiry that was messy. Without those, the date moves, because approval takes longer than the install. A chat assistant is 3–5 working days once twenty answers and site access are in hand. I will not start the build on a login that only I control.
The short list
Bring these to the first reply, or expect the first reply to ask for them.
- The job in one sentence: answer these questions, book this calendar, or file this lead.
- Up to twenty answers you are willing to stand behind, including what you do not do.
- A login you own for the site, the calendar, the inbox, or the CRM. Invite me as a user. Do not send a password in chat.
- One real example: a form submission, an email, or a call you wish had gone better.
- The name of the person who will read alerts after launch.
What moves the date
Chat is 3–5 working days. Booking is 7–10. Voice is 2–3 weeks. A two-tool workflow is 2–4 working days. A landing page is 4–7. Those windows assume the access and the answers arrive at the start.
The usual delay is not the code. It is a calendar that an assistant cannot see, answers that contradict the website, or a CRM field nobody can name. I would rather pause than invent the missing rule.
What you do not need yet
You do not need a brand deck, a model preference, or a diagram of every tool you have ever tried. You do not need to buy a new CRM for the project. If the current tool is a sheet you actually open, the first version can land there.
You also do not need to write a formal brief. The one-sentence job plus the messy example is enough to pick a package. If it does not fit a package, I will say so and price it as its own scope.
How the first reply works
I read what you send and reply within one business day with a package and a price, or with a note that the work does not fit one. Nothing is built before the scope, the price, and the exclusions are written down. Support after handover is 7, 14, or 30 days depending on the package, for fixes to that scope.
