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 Business Analyst Agent
Business data turned into a dashboard and a recurring report with alerts, not a spreadsheet nobody opens.
Your numbers live in several systems, and pulling them together each week falls to whoever has a spare afternoon. This agent reads your data sources, tracks the metrics you define and keeps one dashboard or report current. When a number moves past a threshold you set, it tells you straight away. It has read-only access, so your data stays exactly as it is.
- One dashboard or report built from up to three data sources
- Threshold alerts as soon as a key metric moves out of range
- Results checked against your own history before launch
$3,900
20–30 working days
Optional maintenance $249/mo
What it is
AI Business Analyst Agent is a standing analyst that reads up to three of your data sources, tracks the metrics you define, and delivers a dashboard or recurring report with alerts when numbers move outside your thresholds. Every result is checked against your own historical data before it goes live.
Why businesses buy it
Most teams do not lack data. They lack the time to assemble it, so reports arrive late and problems surface in the monthly meeting instead of the week they began. This agent keeps the view current and flags the numbers that need attention, so managers act on trends while they can still change them. It never writes to your systems. The metrics, sources and alerts are listed on the Scope Card before you order, and results are checked against your own historical data, so you can trust the numbers from the first report.
Problems this solves
Weekly numbers are pulled together by hand from several systems
The agent reads up to three of your data sources, read-only, and tracks up to 25 metrics or recurring questions you define. Results land in one dashboard or recurring report.
Problems in the numbers are spotted only at month end
You set thresholds for the metrics that matter, and up to five alerts fire when numbers move outside them. Alerts go to email, Slack or the web dashboard, whichever you choose.
Leaders doubt automated figures because nobody has checked them
Before going live, every result is checked against three months of your own historical data. The test report shows what was compared, so you can see how the figures were confirmed.
A good fit if
You have data spread across a few systems and nobody has time to pull it into one view every week.
You can name the 25 or fewer metrics or questions that actually matter to how the business is run.
You want alerts when a number crosses a threshold, rather than discovering it in a monthly review meeting.
You can give read-only access to your data sources and at least three months of history to validate against.
Not the right fit if
You need general web and document research on a topic, not analysis of your own business data. See AI Research Agent.
You need the agent to take action on the numbers, such as adjusting a budget or updating a CRM field. See an Action Agent such as AI Account Manager Agent.
You specifically need competitor and market pricing tracked and proposed, not your own internal metrics. See AI Pricing Intelligence Agent.
You need more than three data sources or more than 25 metrics. Add a note at checkout for a Change Quote, or use the Custom AI enquiry form for a larger analytics build.
How it works
- Your metrics are defined. Up to 25 metrics or recurring questions are agreed with you, along with what good, borderline and bad look like for each one.
- Read-only connections are made to up to three data sources, so the agent can pull numbers without any risk of writing back or changing your records.
- Results are checked against history. Before anything ships, the agent's numbers are validated against at least three months of your historical data, so you can see it matches what you already know is true.
- A dashboard or recurring report is built. It lands in the channel you chose, email, Slack or a web dashboard, showing the defined metrics in the format agreed during intake.
- Alerts are set on up to five thresholds. When a metric crosses a line you defined, such as a conversion rate dropping or a cost rising, you are notified outside the regular reporting cycle.
- Everything is handed off. You get the test report against your historical data, a recorded walkthrough of the dashboard, and 30 days to flag anything before support ends.
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.
- Read-only access to each data source the analysis should pull from.
- Your own definitions for the key metrics, since the same word can mean different things in different businesses.
- At least three months of historical data to validate the numbers against.
- The people who should receive the report and the channel it should land in.
- 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 metric definitions 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, metrics and thresholds agreed.
Weeks 1–2
Data connections and calculations built.
Week 3
Dashboard or report format built.
Weeks 3–4
Results checked against 3 months of your history.
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 | $3,900 |
| Express | 15–25 working days | $4,600 |
| Rush | 10–20 working days | $5,250 |
What you receive at handover
- The AI Business Analyst Agent, deployed with read-only access to up to three data sources
- One dashboard or recurring report covering your defined metrics, with up to five threshold alerts
- A test report comparing results against three months of your historical data
- Workflow, prompt and guardrail configuration
- An admin guide and recorded handoff session
- 30 days of post-launch support
Expected benefits and how to measure them
- Can free up the hours spent assembling reports by hand
- Helps you notice a metric drifting before it becomes a bigger problem
- Makes it easier for everyone to work from the same numbers
- Hours spent preparing recurring reports
- Ask whoever builds the reports to log the time for a month before launch. Compare with the month after.
- Time to spot an out-of-range metric
- For each alert, note when the number moved and when someone acted. Compare with how past issues were caught.
- Ad hoc data requests
- Keep a simple tally of data requests sent to analysts or finance, before launch and after.
Before you start: Write down which reports are built by hand, how often, and how long each takes. Note one or two recent issues and when they were noticed.
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 $20 to $150 a month in your own accounts, covering AI model usage and the hosting or scheduler that refreshes the dashboard or report. Cost depends on how often it refreshes and how many data sources feed it.
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
We recommend monthly maintenance for this build. It covers monitoring, fixes and monthly change hours for new metrics, adjusted thresholds or a reworked report layout as the business changes. 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 BI tool charges per seat whether or not the dashboards are ever finished | An analytics consultant bills for discovery, then for build | Ours is one fixed price, shown before you buy |
| Setup | A BI tool needs someone on your team to build every metric | A consultant's setup time is agreed project by project | Ours ships with your 25 metrics already defined and validated |
| Validation | A BI tool shows whatever the connected data says, right or wrong | A consultant's checking depends on who is staffed on it | Ours is checked against 3 months of your historical data before launch |
| Alerts | A BI tool usually needs an add-on for alerting | An agency build depends on what was agreed | Ours includes up to 5 threshold alerts as standard |
Questions about this product
Will it change any of my data?
No. Every connection is read-only by design, so the agent pulls numbers to build your dashboard and report but never writes back to or changes anything in your source systems, no matter what access level you grant it during setup and configuration.
What if the numbers do not match what I already know?
That is exactly what the three-month historical check is for. Before launch, every result is validated against your own history, and any mismatch is caught and corrected then, rather than being discovered later after you have already started relying on the dashboard for decisions.
What is the typical monthly running cost?
Roughly $20 to $150 a month in your own accounts, covering AI model usage and the hosting or scheduler behind the dashboard or report. There is no separate fee to us for running it, and cost mostly tracks how often the numbers refresh and how many sources feed it.
Can it pull from more than three data sources?
The build covers up to three read-only sources. A fourth source is available as an add-on and quoted separately, since each new source usually needs its own metric mapping and a fresh validation pass against your historical data before it can be trusted.
How much of the team's time does the setup process take?
Roughly one to two hours for intake, defining metrics and granting read-only access, spread across the 72 hours after you order. Then about an hour reviewing the historical validation results before the two rounds of changes, plus the recorded 60-minute handoff session at launch.
Can it write reports in plain language, not just charts?
Yes. The dashboard or report format is agreed with you during intake, and we suggest a short plain-language summary above the numbers, so the reader does not have to interpret a chart alone to understand what actually changed and why it matters.
What happens when a metric needs to change later?
Small adjustments to an existing metric fit inside the monthly change hours that come with maintenance, such as a changed formula or a renamed field. A brand new metric within the 25-metric cap is usually the same; going past that cap needs a written Change Quote first.
What if something is wrong at launch?
You get two rounds of changes during the build, after seeing the results checked against your own history. After delivery you have five working days to flag anything against the Scope Card, and it gets fixed as part of the price, not as a Change Quote.
Guides on this topic
All guides Stop rebuilding the same report from scratch every month.
Order the AI Business Analyst Agent and get one validated view of the numbers that run your business, with alerts when they move. The sources, metrics and thresholds are agreed in writing before you pay.
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