AI Agents and Assistants
What is an AI agent? A plain-English guide for business owners
What an AI agent is, how it works, where it helps a small business, the risks, and a 7-point check to see if you are ready for one.
Business Agents
AI Project Manager Agent
Tasks, deadlines and blockers tracked automatically, with status posted to the team before you have to ask.
Status updates depend on someone remembering to write them, and deadlines slip quietly until they are already late. This agent watches your project tools for overdue tasks, stalled work and blockers, tells the right person, and posts a status update to the team on your schedule. It only acts inside the workflows and approval rules you sign off, so the plan stays yours.
- Status updates posted on schedule without anyone writing them
- Blockers raised with the person who can clear them
- Plan changes made only inside the approval rules you set
$4,400
20–30 working days
Optional maintenance $249/mo
What it is
AI Project Manager Agent is a delegate that watches your project tools for tasks, deadlines and blockers, and posts status updates to your team on the schedule you set. It acts only inside the workflows and approval rules you approve, and logs every action so you can see what changed.
Why businesses buy it
Project slippage rarely starts with a big failure. It starts with a task nobody checked, a blocker nobody escalated and a status meeting spent collecting facts instead of making decisions. This agent does the checking and chasing every day, so managers spend their time on judgment calls. Your team gets fewer surprises and leaders get a current picture without asking. The workflows, connected tools and approval rules are written on the Scope Card before you order, so you know exactly what it will and will not change.
Problems this solves
Deadlines slip quietly until someone asks for an update
The agent watches your project tools for tasks, deadlines and blockers. It raises slipping work early, through workflows that follow the approval rules you agree during setup.
Managers spend hours chasing status before every team meeting
It posts status updates to your team on the schedule you set, built from what is actually in the project tool. People spend less time writing updates by hand.
Nobody can tell who changed what in the project plan
Every action the agent takes is logged, so you can see what changed and why. Anything beyond its approved workflows waits for a person to decide.
A good fit if
Your team runs projects in a tool like Asana, Monday, Notion or Jira, and status updates depend on someone remembering to write them.
Deadlines slip quietly because nobody is watching every task until it is already late.
You want blockers surfaced to the right person automatically, instead of sitting unnoticed in a comment thread.
You can define up to six workflows, such as a weekly status post or an overdue-task escalation, with clear approval rules for each.
Not the right fit if
You need a personal inbox and calendar managed for one leader, not project tracking for a team. See AI Executive Assistant.
You need meeting notes and action items captured from the calls themselves. See AI Meeting Agent.
You need vendor quotes compared for a purchase, not task tracking. See AI Procurement Agent.
You need more than six workflows or more than two connected project tools. Add a note at checkout for a Change Quote, or use the Custom AI enquiry form for larger rollouts.
How it works
- Your project tools are connected with read and write access, up to two of them, so the agent can see real task data and post updates back into the same place your team already works.
- Tasks and deadlines are watched continuously against the workflows you approved, such as flagging anything overdue by more than a set number of days or missing an owner.
- Blockers are surfaced to the right person. When a task is stalled, the agent identifies who it depends on and raises it with them directly, inside the channel you chose.
- Status updates are drafted and posted on your schedule, pulling real task counts, risks and upcoming deadlines from your connected tools rather than a manual summary someone has to write.
- Escalations follow your approval rules. Anything that needs a person's judgment, such as reassigning a task or moving a deadline, is flagged to the approver you named rather than done automatically.
- Every update and escalation is logged, so you can see what was posted, to whom, and why, across all six workflows.
What you provide within 72 hours
Your portal lists these the moment you order. Delivery starts the working day after everything is in and your access is checked.
- Admin or API access to your project tools, with sandbox or test projects if you have them.
- Your rules for status updates and escalations, such as who gets notified and how overdue a task has to be before it is flagged.
- Ten real tasks, threads or status updates that show how your team actually communicates progress.
- The name of whoever approves changes like reassigning work or moving a deadline.
- Admin access and API keys for every connected system, shared by adding our team as a user or creating a key you control, never by email.
- Your business information (company basics, hours and brand voice), shared during intake.
- One decision-maker who can approve the workflow rules during the build.
- An API key for your own AI model account (for example OpenAI or Google Gemini), created for this build with a spending limit.
The 72-hour rule. Send everything on your checklist, including access, within 72 hours of ordering so your build starts on time.
Timeline
Start
Intake verified, workflows and approval rules agreed.
Weeks 1–2
Task tracking and status workflows built.
Week 3
Project tools connected with read and write access.
Weeks 3–4
50 test scenarios run, results sent to you.
Week 4
Your review and two rounds of changes.
Go-live
Live, recorded handoff session, support starts.
| Option | Delivery time | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 20–30 working days | $4,400 |
| Express | 15–25 working days | $5,150 |
| Rush | 10–20 working days | $5,950 |
What you receive at handover
- The AI Project Manager Agent, connected to up to two of your systems with read and write access
- Up to six workflows with your approval rules, plus prompt and guardrail settings
- A test report covering the documented test scenarios
- An admin guide and a recording of the handoff session
- 30 days of post-launch support
Expected benefits and how to measure them
- Can cut the time spent collecting status from the team
- Helps blockers surface while there is still time to act
- Makes project changes easier to trace afterwards
- On-time task completion
- Export completed tasks with due dates for a month before launch and a month after. Compare how many finished on time.
- Time spent preparing status updates
- Ask project leads to estimate weekly hours on status reporting before launch, then again after the first month.
- Age of open blockers
- Use your project tool's history to see how long items stay blocked, before and after the agent is running.
Before you start: Export a month of task history with due and completion dates. Note how much time leads spend each week compiling status.
These are things to track, not promised results. Outcomes depend on your data, your team and your market.
Running costs
The build price is one-time. Running it costs roughly $50 to $250 a month in your own accounts, covering AI model usage and hosting, on top of whatever you already pay for your project management and CRM or helpdesk tools.
AI usage during build and testing is billed the same way, in accounts you control.
Ask about running costsCustom requirements
Add a note at checkout if you need something specific. If it fits within the Scope Card it is simply included. If it goes beyond it, you get a written Change Quote within two working days, and that work starts only once you accept it, with its time added to your delivery date.
Request a custom versionKeep it running
Monthly maintenance covers monitoring, fixes and a monthly allowance of change hours for new workflows, changed escalation rules or an added project tool. It starts after the 30 days of included support, bills monthly and can be cancelled any month.
$249/mo (the minimum fee, includes 2 change hours)
Optional. Starts after the post-launch support period. Cancel any month.
How maintenance worksHow this compares
| Do it yourself with a SaaS tool | Hire a custom agency | Upmark Labs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | A project tool's automation add-on charges per seat regardless of use | A project management consultant bills hourly to set up workflows | Ours is one fixed price, shown before you buy |
| Setup | A SaaS automation needs your team to build and maintain every rule | A consultant's setup depends on scope agreed informally | Ours ships with up to 6 workflows built and tested for you |
| Escalations | A generic automation fires the same rule for everyone | Escalation handling depends on who is staffed | Ours follows the approval rules you set for each workflow |
| Delivery | A SaaS tool is live once your team finishes configuring it | A consultant engagement usually runs several weeks | Ours has a fixed delivery time shown before you buy, with faster options |
Questions about this product
Can it reassign tasks on its own?
Only inside the approval rules you set during intake. Anything that changes ownership or a deadline is flagged to your named approver by default, and you can allow specific low-risk reassignments directly if you choose, but nothing widens that boundary on its own over time.
Which project tools does it work with?
Most commonly Asana, Monday, Notion, Jira or similar tools, connected with read and write access up to two at a time. Tell us your tools during intake, and we confirm compatibility before the build starts, so there are no surprises once work is underway.
What does it typically cost each month to run?
Roughly $50 to $250 a month in your own accounts, covering AI model usage and hosting, on top of your existing project and CRM tools. There is no separate fee to us for running it, and cost scales mainly with how many workflows stay active.
How does it decide what counts as a blocker?
Against the rules you set during intake, such as a task with no movement for a set number of days, a missing dependency, or a task waiting on a person who has not responded. You define the thresholds; the agent applies them the same way every time.
How much of the team's time does setup actually take?
Roughly one to two hours for intake, mostly access and your escalation rules, spread across the 72 hours after you order. Then about an hour to review the 50 test scenarios before the two rounds of changes, plus the recorded handoff session once it is live.
Can I add more workflows later?
Small changes to an existing workflow fit inside the monthly change hours of maintenance, such as a new trigger or a reworded update. A whole new workflow beyond the six in scope comes through a written Change Quote, priced and agreed before it starts.
What if a status update is wrong at launch?
You get two rounds of changes during the build, after reviewing the 50 test scenarios against real task data together. After delivery you have five working days to flag anything against the Scope Card, and it gets fixed at no extra cost to you.
Who can see the status updates it posts?
Whoever you choose. Updates post to the channel and audience you set at intake, such as a specific Slack channel or a project tool's own status field, and that audience can always be changed later through monthly maintenance if your team changes.
Guides on this topic
All guides Stop chasing status updates nobody had time to write.
Order the AI Project Manager Agent and let it track deadlines, chase blockers and post status for your team. The workflows and approval rules are agreed in writing before you pay.
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