An AI agent for a small construction firm

In a small construction firm, the owner is on site during the day. The paperwork falls back in the evening and at the weekend. That is what Geoffrey describes. He runs AMOI, a metalwork firm in Réunion. The question is not whether an AI agent “replaces a secretary”. It is simpler: what can it actually take on, and what stays with the owner?

Since March 2026, Geoffrey has used his agent himself, day to day.

The case is a metalwork firm. The same pattern shows up in other manual trades: the heart of the work is on site, and there is no one else to do the paperwork.

What the agent does

Trade routines run. Invoices go to his invoicing software. Replies to Google reviews are watched. When the website receives a contact, the agent tells Geoffrey. Supplier invoices are collected from their sites. These routines exist. That does not prove that every run was correct.

Beside the routines, Geoffrey gives it one-off requests: invoicing, work on the website, the calendar.

In the film, he describes this use.

“We can call the agent the way we would call a secretary or a colleague, to pass on orders or to make requests by phone.”

“[…] we can, hands-free, while driving, in complete safety, keep talking with our agent.”

“The agent handles my emails without me: it receives them, reads my inbox, and can tell me what was said and whether it is urgent or not.”

On email, he adds: “And then, of course, I act where it is needed.” The agent reads and flags. The decision stays with Geoffrey.

He also describes a recent use for prospecting. He asked the agent to target a type of profile, to look on the internet for a list of addresses, and to contact those addresses. Geoffrey wrote the emails himself, “because I like to do things in a human way”. The agent sent them. When a reply came in, the agent told him. “People reply, and I just have to start the next step.”

That account is his, in the film. It does not say how many contacts replied, or what the prospecting produced.

What stays with the owner

The rule is written into the offer: anything sent outside waits for the owner’s approval; the routines he authorises run on their own. Prepared work can contain errors. It has to be read over.

At AMOI, that shows in the film. Geoffrey writes the prospecting emails. He acts on email when it is needed. The agent prepares, forwards, alerts. It does not decide for him what is urgent, or what goes out to the customer.

Each month, thirty minutes together are used to look at what the agent has done, and to refine what is entrusted to it.

I have written elsewhere about what automation moves when a task is removed without looking at the rest: You do not remove a task. You move the real work.

What it costs, and what it does not say

The subscription is €99 a month excl. VAT (€107.42 including VAT for a client established in Réunion). It covers the agent configured for the business, installation, the maintenance of the service, and thirty minutes a month with me. The commitment is monthly. You start with a free fifteen-day trial, with no card: on the fifteenth day, either the same agent continues, or the service stops and an export is offered to you.

At AMOI, use is daily. That says he uses it. It does not say how many minutes the paperwork took him before, or after. What the agent saves him has not been timed.

Where to start

It starts with a conversation. I scope a first piece of work, on the tools already in place, not on software to buy on top. The fifteen-day trial is there to see whether the agent holds on that first piece of work, with you approving what goes out.

The AMOI case carries over to an SME in mainland France. The routines do not depend on the place. What the case places in Réunion is the trade, the metalwork.

I set out that framing in AI agents in SMEs: start from real work. The AMOI case is on the page for small firms. The offer, the price and the terms are on the Agents page.