How long AI chat takes to set up
The install is ten minutes. The reason most chat projects stall is not the install.
Every vendor demo is fast because somebody prepared the content first. That preparation is the project.
Where the time actually goes
- Writing down policies that only exist in somebody's head
- Getting the catalog in, with variants and stock that stay current
- Deciding what the assistant must never do on its own
- Reading real transcripts and fixing what it got wrong
A realistic first week
- Day one: install, connect the catalog, and ask it ten questions yourself
- Day two: fix the five worst answers — they will be shipping, returns and stock
- Day three: let real traffic in, and read every transcript
- The rest of the week: one fix a day, taken from what customers actually asked
The work that never ends
Prices change, policies change, and the assistant is only ever as current as what it was told. Fifteen minutes a week reading transcripts is the difference between one that improves and one that quietly goes out of date.
What finished looks like
Not a perfect assistant — one where the questions it cannot answer are the ones you would not have wanted answered automatically anyway.
What can genuinely be automated
Reading a public website and drafting the first version of the answers is a job a model does well. Reviewing those drafts is not, and should not be skipped — it is the only step that catches a policy the site states wrongly.
A fair test of "fast"
Ask to set it up on your own site, in front of you, with nothing prepared. Everything else is a rehearsal.
A realistic first week
- Day one: install, connect the catalog, and ask it ten questions yourself
- Day two: fix the five worst answers — they will be shipping, returns and stock
- Day three: let real traffic in, and read every transcript
- The rest of the week: one fix a day, taken from what customers actually asked
The work that never ends
Prices change, policies change, and the assistant is only ever as current as what it was told. Fifteen minutes a week reading transcripts is the difference between one that improves and one that quietly goes out of date.
What finished looks like
Not a perfect assistant — one where the questions it cannot answer are the ones you would not have wanted answered automatically anyway.