I set up AI agents for small and medium businesses. An agent is software that carries out a job on its own: it reads the information, makes the call the rule says to make, does the work, and reports back. The setup engagement chooses the job, builds the agent on the business's own machines, connects it to what the business already runs, and hands it over documented and working.
The practice runs on the same thing it sells. My own business is operated by an agent system built mainly on Claude Code, with other models working alongside it, and everything I set up for a client is something I run myself first. That is where the advice comes from.
What an AI agent does once it is set up
The work that suits an agent repeats, follows a rule, and touches information the business already holds. The shapes below are the ones that come up most often. Read them as examples: which one earns its place gets decided against the specific business.
- Reading the numbers. The bank export, the spreadsheet or the accounting file the business already keeps, turned into a Monday morning picture of what came in and what is owed.
- Quoting and follow-up. Quotes drafted from the job details, sent, and chased on schedule.
- Drafting in the business's own voice. The emails, replies and listings that repeat, written the way the business already writes them.
- Records that hold. Every job, client and decision written to plain files the business owns and can search later.
- Reporting. The weekly numbers assembled and sent without anyone assembling them.
An agent works from instructions, so it keeps working outside office hours and it does the twentieth one the same way it did the first. The first session is where we work out which job in your business that applies to, and it starts with how the money comes in and where the hours go.
What gets set up
- The software, on your machine. Claude Code installed and configured on the business's own computer, with the accounts and access it needs and nothing it does not.
- The agent itself. Its job, its rules, the business's own facts and the way the business writes, all held in plain text files you can open and edit.
- The connections. Wired to what the business already runs: the accounting export, the inbox, the spreadsheets, the website.
- Proof it works. Demonstrated live on real work from your business before we move on to the next thing.
- Documentation and a way to add more. Written down so a second person can pick it up, and shaped so the next agent is an addition rather than a rebuild.
The files stay with the business. Nothing is locked to me or to one AI vendor, and the model underneath can be swapped as better ones arrive.
Three ways to engage
- Half-day working session, $2,000. The smallest way in. Live on Zoom, screen shared the whole way, and your first agent is set up on your machine and working before the session ends. Format detail on the training page.
- Full advisory engagement, $15,000. The technology decisions for the business made properly, with the first agents stood up as part of the engagement and 30 days of direct access while the plan goes into practice. The advisory page carries the full shape.
- Retained advisory, from $5,000 a month. The ongoing version: the agents kept current as the models and tools change, and a monthly deep session on what they take on next.
Who this suits
Business owners, founders and CEOs of small to medium businesses, most often between 10 and 200 people, in a business with work that repeats every week. A technical background is not needed. The build happens on your screen with you watching, and an agent is instructed in plain English.
The engagement starts by finding the work an agent can genuinely take on in your business. Where there is little there worth building, that is the answer you get.
Who does the work
I'm Daniel Bilsborough, based in Melbourne, working with businesses anywhere over Zoom. Enterprise technology background at Hewlett-Packard and Siemens (BBC account, London), an RMIT double degree in business administration and computer systems engineering, fifteen years running my own businesses, and current ads-and-growth work at Northbase digital agency. There is no team behind the curtain and no handoff to junior staff. The person you speak to is the person who builds it.
The same work under other names
Businesses search for this as AI agent development services, AI agent implementation, or simply AI agents for business. The engagement is the one described on this page. For the background on the technology itself, the agentic AI guide covers what agents are and how they work, and the Claude Code guide covers the platform most of these agents are built on. Where the need is broader than agents, the same service runs as an AI consultant for small business or as a fractional CTO, and the AI consulting guide sets out what the traditional consulting route costs by comparison.
Owners who would rather build the agents themselves can do that instead: the half-day Claude Code course is the same setup work, run as a workshop with the owner at the keyboard.
Start with the job you'd hand over.
Email what your business does and which piece of work you'd want an agent to take on, and you'll get a straight answer on whether it is a fit, including when it isn't.
Get in touch →Questions owners ask
What is AI agent setup?
Putting a working agent into a business: choosing the job it takes on, installing and configuring the software on the business's own machines, writing its instructions and the business's own facts into files the owner can read, connecting it to the systems already in use, and showing it working. You end up with a running system and the documentation to keep it running.
What can an agent actually do for my business?
Work that repeats, follows a rule, and touches information the business already holds: the numbers turned into a weekly picture, quotes sent and chased, the emails that repeat drafted in your voice, records kept in files you can search. Which of those is worth building comes out of the first session.
How much does AI agent setup cost?
Independent AI consultants in Australia typically charge $200-500 an hour. This practice prices by engagement: $2,000 for the half-day working session, $15,000 for a full advisory engagement, and retained advisory from $5,000 a month.
Do I need technical skills?
No. The agents are instructed in plain English and the instruction files read like plain English too. The setup happens on your machine with you watching, so you see where everything lives before the engagement ends.
Where does it run, and who owns it?
On your own machines, with the instructions, your business's facts and the records in plain files you own. Nothing is locked to me or to one AI vendor, and the model underneath can be swapped as the market moves.
What happens when the tools change?
They change monthly, so the instructions live in files rather than inside a vendor's product and a better model can be dropped in behind them. Retained clients get that watched for them, which is most of what the retainer covers.
Remote or in person?
Melbourne based, works anywhere over Zoom. The build happens on your machine over a shared screen, so distance has little bearing on it.