Lead follow-up
Outcome: Every qualified enquiry gets worked while the person still cares.
Measure: Response time, contact rate, bookings and won work.
THE PRACTICAL GUIDE
The AI Employee Playbook
Find the first job worth handing over, put a number on it and see how an AI employee gets built in 14 days.
- One job: one clear responsibility inside your business.
- 24/7: the job keeps moving outside your team's paid hours.
- 14 days: the first AI employee is built, tested and put live.
For small to medium service businesses, from growing operators to established teams approaching $30m in annual revenue.
01 / THE JOB
An AI employee owns one job.
It is custom-built around one responsibility inside your business. Lead follow-up. Admin. Reporting. Inbox triage. The first build starts with the job costing you the most money or time.
- A good first job
- Happens often, follows clear rules and ends in a result you can check.
- A bad first job
- Changes every time, depends on missing information or has no agreed finish line.
- Your role
- Explain the work, approve the DESIGN and join one call a month.
- Elite's role
- DIAGNOSE, DESIGN, DEPLOY, manage and fix the AI employee.
The point is not to add another tool. The point is to get one valuable job handled without hiring another person.
02 / THE NUMBERS
Measure the bottleneck before you build.
Use your own numbers. Do not estimate a dramatic saving to make the idea look better. A useful baseline makes the first 30 days easy to judge.
| Question | Your number |
|---|---|
| How many times does the job happen each week? | Write your number |
| How many minutes does one run take? | Write your number |
| How long does the work wait before anyone starts? | Write your number |
| How many leads, quotes or jobs die while it waits? | Write your number |
| What is one completed result worth? | Write your number |
Simple baseline: weekly hours = times per week × minutes per run ÷ 60.
03 / FIRST EMPLOYEES
Four jobs worth checking first.
Administration
Outcome: Routine updates, reminders and paperwork stop reaching the owner.
Measure: Runs per week, minutes per run, errors and exceptions.
Reporting
Outcome: The week ends with one decision-ready report.
Measure: Hours spent building reports and decisions delayed.
Inbox triage
Outcome: The inbox becomes a short list that genuinely needs a person.
Measure: Messages handled, time to first response and items escalated.
04 / ILLUSTRATIVE WORKFLOW
What 60 seconds can change.
This is an illustrative workflow, not a client case study. It shows the difference between an enquiry worked in 60 seconds and one left untouched for 3 days.
- 09:47:08 · Enquiry: A customer asks whether you can take on work this week.
- 09:47:24 · Check: The AI employee checks the rules and asks the next useful question.
- 09:47:41 · Action: A booking or quote step is offered within the approved limits.
- 09:47:56 · Result: The owner gets one summary after the work has moved.
The number to verify in your business is not whether the AI replied. It is whether faster, consistent follow-up created more qualified conversations and booked work.
05 / THE METHOD
The 4D Framework
- DIAGNOSE: We find the actual bottleneck. Not the one you think you have. The one costing you money.
- DESIGN: We map the AI employee, show you exactly what it does, and get your sign-off before we build a thing.
- DEPLOY: We build it, test it, and put it live. 14 days.
- DEVELOP: Every month we measure what it's doing, find the next constraint, and build the next one.
Your part: one call to start and one call a month. Elite handles the technical work.
06 / THE FIRST 30 DAYS
Live in 14 days. Measured inside 30.
- Day 1 · DIAGNOSE: Choose the job, baseline the number and confirm access.
- Days 2 to 4 · DESIGN: Map the inputs, rules, human approvals, exceptions and finish line.
- Days 5 to 13 · DEPLOY: Build, connect, test and correct against agreed cases.
- Day 14 · LIVE: Put the first AI employee live after the acceptance checks pass.
- Day 30 · DEVELOP: Compare the result to the baseline and decide the next constraint.
07 / SCORECARD
Which job should go first?
Score each candidate from 1 to 5. The highest useful score is usually the best place to start.
| Question | Score |
|---|---|
| Does it happen at least every week? | / 5 |
| Does waiting cost money or owner time? | / 5 |
| Can the rules be written down? | / 5 |
| Can a person check the result? | / 5 |
| Is the source information reliable? | / 5 |
| Would handing it over matter inside 30 days? | / 5 |
| Total | / 30 |
START WITH DIAGNOSE
Bring the job that keeps landing back on your desk.
Reply to the email with the job you want to hand over first. We will help you check whether it is clear, repeated and measurable enough to build.