AI for SMEs · without the hype
As an AI agency for SMEs in Höfe, March and around Lake Zurich, I use AI where it reliably helps today: answering e-mails, searching documents, reading data from PDFs. And I tell you where it does not. Start with the AI workshop for CHF 950.–; an AI assistant for your team costs from CHF 6'900.–.
Example: AI assistant at a kitchen maker
How long is the warranty on the cabinet fronts of the “Lugano” kitchen?
5 years on the material, 2 years on the installation.
Source: Warranty terms 2026, page 2
Under water · Where AI helps today
Not a promise about the future. This works today.
01
The AI drafts a reply in your tone, with your prices and delivery times. You check it and send it.
Typical for: Accounting firms, administration, customer service
02
Your team asks in plain words and gets the answer from manuals, price lists and contracts, with the source.
Typical for: Trades, engineering, property
03
Long e-mail threads, meeting notes or tenders, boiled down to five points.
Typical for: Management, construction, projects
04
A chatbot answers common questions around the clock and books appointments. Difficult questions are passed on to you.
Typical for: Garages, service businesses, restaurants
05
Orders or delivery notes as PDFs: the AI reads the fields and transfers them to Excel or bexio, the Swiss accounting software.
Typical for: Trade, administration
No science fiction
Two terms you read everywhere. Here is what is behind them.
A good chatbot only answers with what is on your website and in your documents. If it does not know something, it passes the question on to you. It books appointments straight into your booking tool.
Honestly: for standard questions only, a ready-made chatbot subscription from around CHF 50 a month is often enough. If so, I will tell you.
An AI agent handles a task in several steps: read an e-mail, look up the customer in bexio, prepare a reply. That works well today, as long as a person approves at the end.
Agents that spend money or make binding promises to customers without a check: I do not build those for SMEs.
To be honest
Not every problem needs AI. I solve these cases differently.
Where a fixed workflow is enough
A normal automation does exactly the same thing every time. That is cheaper and more reliable.
Where mistakes are expensive
Binding prices, legal advice, the annual accounts: here a person decides, not the AI.
Where nothing is written down
If nowhere says how you work, the AI cannot know either. It will then make up answers.
Your data
For every project, you decide where your data is processed. Data protection is set up according to Swiss law (the Federal Act on Data Protection, FADP).
Processing
Open-source AI models in Swiss data centres, e.g. Apertus from ETH Zurich and EPFL. For payroll, HR and health data, and client files at accounting firms.
Processing
Well-known, capable AI models in European data centres, with a data processing agreement. The right choice for most SMEs.
Processing
The strongest models, with processing that may also happen in the USA, under contract. Good for text without personal data.
Rule of thumb for your team
Fine to use
Public information, website copy, product descriptions, general templates.
Company tool only
Customer e-mails, quotes, internal documents. Only in tools that, by contract, do not use your data for training.
Not at all, or Switzerland only
Health, payroll and bank data, passwords, and anything covered by professional secrecy.
In the AI workshop, we write these rules down for your business.
Pricing
Three ways to start, all at a fixed price. Prices as of October 2026. All prices in CHF, excluding any applicable VAT.
You want to know where AI really saves time in your business, without the hype.
CHF 950.–half a day with your team (by video until 2027), within 2 weeks
One workflow with AI, e.g. draft replies to e-mails or reading data from PDFs.
fromCHF 2'900.–running after 10 working days
Recommended
Your team finds answers in your own documents in seconds instead of minutes.
fromCHF 6'900.–in use within 4 weeks
Fixed price
The price in the quote is the price. No surprises.
Fixed date
A binding date. If I miss it, you get 5% back for each week or part of a week I'm late, up to 20%.
One contact
You always talk to me, never to a call centre.
You own it all
Website, code and domain. No subscription you can't get out of.
Frequently asked questions
Together we find the two or three places where AI saves time in your day-to-day work, and I build them so that your team actually uses them. Usually that means e-mails, documents and recurring questions, with the Outlook, Google and bexio you already have.
A chatbot that answers your common questions using your own content costs from CHF 2'900.–. If it should also search your documents and book appointments, I quote the AI assistant, from CHF 6'900.–. Running costs come on top, from CHF 149.– per month. If a ready-made chatbot subscription is enough, I will tell you.
Only if you want it to. You choose per project: processing in Switzerland, in the EU or globally. I only use providers that, by contract, do not use your data to train their AI. Payroll and health data I only process in Switzerland.
The AI workshop takes place within 2 weeks, with a first prototype on the same day. A workflow with AI runs after 10 working days, and an AI assistant is in use within 4 weeks.
Yes. That is why the AI suggests and a person decides. Every answer shows which document it comes from. Where a mistake would be expensive, I use a fixed workflow instead of AI.
Goes well with
Next available start: February 2027
In a free first call, I will tell you honestly whether AI is worth it for you. If it is, we start with the AI workshop: half a day, CHF 950.–, with a prototype.