Example: Olga, an online store owner, follows the SMB route
Olga is a composite character, and the figures are illustrative. This example follows the small business route in the Volume 2 workbook, without an IT department or a consulting budget. Version: 2026-07-09.
Olga is 38 and runs an online home-goods store with her husband, two employees, and seasonal contractors. Everything depends on her: procurement, product listings, customer replies, advertising, and an outsourced accountant. She has heard about "AI employees," but every evening is already full.
Step 5. Map the "SMB staff," Chapter 5
She completed the staff map: every function × hours per week × the cost of doing it badly.
| Function | Hours/week | Cost of error | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product listings and descriptions | 6 | low, easy to correct | 🟢 first candidate |
| Customer replies before purchase | 8 | medium | 🟡 agent + review |
| Advertising and promotions | 5 | medium, involves money | 🟡 AI drafts, Olga launches |
| Procurement and suppliers | 6 | high, affects relationships | 🔴 Olga only |
| Complaints and returns | 3 | high, affects reputation | 🔴 Olga only |
- The function with the fastest financial return: product listings. A new shipment means 30 to 50 listings and two evenings of work. With AI and a template, Olga spends one evening checking instead of two evenings writing. Listings go live on delivery day rather than a week later. A product that is not in the catalog cannot sell. That is the financial link.
Steps 1 and 2. Maturity and verification, Chapters 1 and 2
- An honest result from the maturity check: level 0. Olga still "asks a chat tool sometimes." That is normal. An SMB has no legacy processes, but it also has no spare people for a redesign. Starting with one function matters more than "adopting AI everywhere."
- Verification for listings: a 6-point checklist. Sizes and materials must come from the supplier invoice, not from AI. The price must come from the spreadsheet. Claims such as "cures" or "guarantees" are prohibited and must be removed. Olga checked all of the first 20 listings. Now she checks every fifth listing plus every item marked as uncertain.
Step 3. Contract with the agent, Chapter 3
Even for "simple product listings," she completed a half-page contract:
- Role: draft a listing from a photo, supplier invoice, and template. Boundaries: it cannot
publish. It cannot invent specifications. If a fact is missing from the invoice, it leaves
[?]. - Escalation: every
[?]→ Olga. Owner: Olga. - Threshold gate: if a sample contains more than one error in five listings, Olga returns to reading every listing in full.
Step 6. Can an agent see the store? Chapter 6
She completed the "Can an agent see me?" checklist:
- Where an agent cannot find the store: delivery and return terms exist only as an image in Stories. The site has no plain text page. To a customer's AI assistant, the store "does not exist."
- First move: create plain text pages for Delivery, Returns, and About the Store, then keep the marketplace stock feed current. It is boring, and it is exactly what agents can read.
My one-page result
| Question | Olga's answer |
|---|---|
| Maturity level | 0 → target: level 2 in one function |
| Function with a fast financial return | product listings, one evening instead of two and a complete catalog on delivery day |
| First agent | "listing draft" with boundaries, [?] escalation, and a 1/5 threshold |
| Where agents cannot see the store | delivery and returns are images, with no text pages |
| What remains mine alone | suppliers, complaints, money, and assortment |
| First-round process | listings; next gate: one month with no increase in "not like the photo" returns |
What to notice in this example
- The starting point is one process with a fast financial return, not an "AI strategy." Listings won because of the combination of hours × cost of error × ease of verification, not because they were fashionable.
- A half-page contract is not bureaucracy. The rule "missing from the invoice →
[?]→ person" prevents the only truly expensive SMB error in this process: invented product specifications. - Agent visibility can be as simple as creating a text page. The task is concrete: publish plain pages with terms that another person's assistant can read and quote.
Complete your own SMB staff map and the getting-started checklist. See the catalog for more examples.