Automating a two-person wholesale office: a 30-day log
What we automated first, what broke, and where the owner still had to step in.
Week 1: WhatsApp first replies
The owner and one admin staff were splitting around 80 enquiries a day between fulfilment and customer questions. We started narrow: AI Autosales handled only the first reply and basic price lookups, everything else still went to the humans.
Week 2: bulk quoting and holds
Once the tier pricing was mapped, the agent took over full bulk quotes with stock holds. This is where the admin staff's workload dropped the most — quoting had been their single biggest time sink.
What broke
Two products had pricing exceptions the owner hadn't mentioned during setup — regional distributor deals with different minimums. The agent quoted standard pricing until the exception list was corrected on day 9.
Where the owner still steps in
Anything above RM 5,000 in order value, and any first-time customer asking for credit terms, still routes to the owner directly. By day 30, that was fewer than five conversations a day, down from roughly 80.