AI automation for small businesses
Your week, minus the busywork.
Brownlee Software builds AI automations that answer new leads in minutes, read your invoices and forms, and keep your systems in sync. You approve anything that goes out in your name.
Example figures. Approving drafts and reviewing flagged items takes roughly a fifth of the old time.
Services
Six jobs I automate most often.
Each one is a proven pattern with a starting price. I fit it to your tools, your rules, and the way you talk to customers. Most go live in one to three weeks.
Answer new leads in minutes
Every inquiry from your website, email, or text gets a reply with your real availability and a way to book, even when you're on a job. Hot leads ping your phone right away.
Read invoices and paperwork
Pulls the details out of invoices, bills, purchase orders, and forms, and puts them in your accounting system or spreadsheet. Anything that looks wrong gets flagged for a person.
Sort the inbox and draft replies
Labels every incoming email, routes it to the right person, and writes a first draft in your voice. You only see what actually needs you.
Follow up on every quote
Sends polite follow-ups on open estimates on a schedule you choose, until you get a yes or a no. Stops the moment the customer replies.
Ask for reviews, catch complaints
Checks in with every customer after the job. Happy customers get a review link. Unhappy ones come straight to you, so you can make it right before it shows up online.
Keep your systems in sync
Connects your CRM, scheduling, spreadsheets, and accounting so a customer entered once shows up everywhere, spelled the same way.
Something else eating your week? If it happens often and follows mostly the same rules, it's probably a good candidate. I also take on one-time data jobs, like moving off an old system or merging customer lists.
Tell me about itCalculator
What is the busywork costing you?
Pick a chore and adjust the numbers to match your business. If an automation won't pay for itself, I'll tell you on the first call.
Hours back each week
3.5hours
Assumes 50 working weeks. These are estimates. Before I build anything, we measure your real numbers, and that's what results are reported against.
How it works
Measured before, measured after.
I start with the business problem and the math, not the technology. Every project ends with numbers you can check.
Free call 30 min
You describe what eats your week. I tell you plainly what's worth automating and what isn't.
Measure week 1
We record today's numbers, like hours spent, reply times, and errors, and agree in writing on what success looks like and what it will cost.
Build and test weeks 1–3
I build it, connect it to your tools, and run it against your real past examples. You see it working before it touches a customer.
Launch and report 30 and 90 days
It goes live with your approval on anything that matters. You get a short report comparing results to the baseline, including what it costs to run.
90-day results report
Example · lead response| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Median reply to a new lead | 3 h 20 m | 1 m 40 s |
| Leads with no reply in 24 h | 18% | 0% |
| Estimates booked per week | 11 | 14 |
| Owner hours on leads per week | 6.5 | 1.5 |
| Running cost per month | — | $38 |
Ground rules
You stay in charge.
You don't need to become an AI company. These commitments apply to every project, in writing.
Jay BrownleeOwner, Brownlee Software
- A person approves what goes out in your name.Approvals arrive as a text or email with one button. If there are dozens a day, I build a simple review screen. You decide when something can run on its own.
- You own everything.Your automations run in your accounts. If we part ways, you keep all of it, with documentation and the code for anything custom.
- When it's unsure, it stops and asks.Every automation is built to pause and flag a person rather than guess.
- Your data stays private.I use business AI services that don't train on your data by default, and we agree up front what each automation can see.
- No markups and no lock-in.Tool costs are billed to you directly. Ongoing support is optional and month to month.
Pricing
Prices you can see before you call.
Most clients start with a free call and one automation, then keep it healthy with a care plan.
Where most clients start
One automation, built and measured
from $1,500fixed quote, one time
- Baseline measurement and written success target
- Built, connected to your tools, and tested on your real examples
- Launch with your approval wherever you want it
- 30 days of adjustments after launch, included
- 30- and 90-day results reports
- Full documentation, yours to keep
Discovery call
Free30 minutes by video. You'll know what's worth automating, whether or not we work together.
Workflow review
$750I map how work moves through your business and rank what to automate by hours and dollars saved. Credited in full toward a build within 60 days.
Care plan
from $250/moMonitoring, fixes when a vendor changes something, small improvements, and a reply within one business day. Cancel anytime.
Team AI training
from $900Hands-on sessions that get your team using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Copilot well in their own daily work.
One-time data projects
QuotedMoving off an old system, cleaning and merging customer lists, scoring a backlog of leads.
Your automations run on tools like n8n, Zapier, or Make, plus AI usage billed per task. Those costs go to your own accounts with no markup, and I estimate them before you commit.
Founding clients. My first three clients get their first automation at half price, in exchange for permission to publish the results report, with or without your name.
Ask about a spot
About
When you hire Brownlee Software, you get me.
I'm Jay Brownlee. I've spent 25 years building software, data platforms, and cloud systems, and leading the teams behind them. At ClearDATA, I built the company's first Data Engineering team and led work that cut billing processing costs by 75%. Today, I build AI products, including a tool that turns cloud security findings into remediation reports.
I keep the business small on purpose. The person on your first call is the person who measures your process, writes the automation, and answers when something needs fixing. No account managers, no handing you off to someone junior.
The company carries my name because my name is on the work. If something I build doesn't do what I said it would, I want you to know exactly who to call.
Questions
Straight answers.
Is this just a chatbot on my website?
Usually not. A chatbot waits for someone to type. These automations connect to your email, calendar, CRM, and accounting, so the work actually gets done: a lead gets answered, an invoice gets entered, a follow-up gets sent. If a website assistant would help, I can build one that answers from your own policies and prices.
What does it cost to run once it's built?
Tool costs go to your own accounts with no markup. An automation platform usually starts around $20 a month, and AI usage is billed per task, often a fraction of a cent to a few cents each. I estimate your monthly total before you commit, and it's included in every results report.
What happens if it makes a mistake?
Anything that goes out in your name is approved by a person until you decide otherwise. Every automation is built to pause and flag when it's unsure. On a care plan, I'm alerted when something fails and reply within one business day.
Who owns what you build?
You do. It runs in your accounts and comes with documentation. If I build a custom screen, like an approval queue or dashboard, you get its code. I keep my own general-purpose templates; anything built for your business is yours.
Is my data safe?
I only ask for the access each job needs, and we agree up front what each automation can see and which AI services it may use. I use the business offerings from providers like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, which don't train on your data by default. Free personal chat apps often do, which is worth checking if your team uses them today.
Will this replace my staff?
It replaces the repetitive part of their jobs. In most businesses, that frees people for the work that's already falling behind: customers, quality, and growth.
What tools do you use?
n8n for most workflows, Zapier or Make if you already use them, Claude, OpenAI, or Gemini for the AI work depending on what fits, and custom code when nothing off the shelf does the job.
Do you work with businesses outside your area?
Yes. I work with businesses nationwide over video, and I'm glad to meet in person locally.
Tell me what eats your week.
Book a free 30-minute call. You'll leave with a clear sense of what's worth automating, whether or not we work together.
Email me directly
hello@brownleesoftware.comInclude a sentence about the process and roughly how often it happens. I reply within one business day with a few times to talk.
Know a business owner buried in paperwork? An introduction is the best compliment you can give me.