A person approves first
Nothing customer-facing or financial goes out until someone on your team approves it. That is the default, and we write down any exception you choose.
AI automation in Edmonton that a person approves before it acts
AI automation for Alberta small and mid-sized businesses: quote requests drafted from incoming email, job reports built from site photos and voice notes, invoice line items read into your books. One workflow at a time, a person checks anything that reaches customers or the books, and each workflow starts from $3,500.
Updated
AI automation
From $3,500
2–6 weeks per workflow · fixed quote first
Watch one request go from inbox to done.
A sample request moves through a typical AI automation. The AI reads it and drafts the result, a person approves it, and only then does it go out. Pick a sample, press play, and press Approve when it reaches the gate.
In
Hi, can you price a steel frame, 40 x 60 ft, for our yard south of Leduc? We need it by 14 November. Thanks, Dana Ridge Fabrication
The AI drafts
- Customer Ridge Fabrication
- Job Steel frame, 40 × 60 ft
- Needed by 14 November
- Site South of Leduc (Which travel zone?)
A person approves
Anything customer-facing or financial stops at the gate. A person fixes the flagged field and approves, or sends it back.
Out
- Reply to customer
- Quote file
- Follow-up reminder
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01
It arrives
A request lands the way it already does: an email, a photo with a voice note, or a supplier PDF. Nobody has to learn a new form.
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02
The AI reads and drafts
A language model pulls out the fields that matter and builds a draft. Anything it is unsure about is flagged instead of guessed.
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03
A person checks
Anything customer-facing or financial stops at the gate. A person fixes the flagged field and approves, or sends it back.
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04
It is sent and logged
Once approved, the result goes to the customer, your records and your books, with a log of what the AI saw and who approved it.
Sample data and a simplified model. A real workflow is built around your documents, tools and approval rules.
It only sees what it needs
We document what data each AI step can see, and keep personal information out of the prompts where possible.
You know where it runs
AI models come from third-party providers and some process requests outside Canada. We tell you which provider and region each step uses, and choose settings that keep your business data out of public model training where the provider offers that control.
What usually brings people here.
Quote requests wait days for an answer
Requests arrive by email, web form and text, each worded differently. Someone has to read them, work out scope and build a price, and the work often goes to whichever competitor replied first.
Paperwork eats the evenings
Site photos, voice notes, time sheets and supplier invoices pile up. Turning them into job reports and accounting entries happens after hours, by the person who should be resting or selling.
An AI tool was tried, then abandoned
Someone signed up for a chatbot, pasted in a customer list and got confident nonsense back. Nobody knows where that data went, and the subscription still renews on a company card.
What you have when we are done.
Draft quotes ready for review
Incoming requests are read, sorted and matched to your price book. An estimator opens a drafted quote with the source email beside it, corrects what needs correcting and sends it.
Job reports written from the field
Photos, voice notes and hours from the crew become a structured job report in your format. The supervisor checks it, adds what only they know and signs off.
Routine questions answered from your documents
Customers and staff get answers drawn only from your own policies, manuals and SOPs, with the source shown. Anything unclear, unusual or sensitive goes to a named person instead.
A written record of what AI sees
Each step is documented: which provider runs it, in which region, what data it receives and who approves its output. You can answer a customer's privacy question without guessing.
What is included.
- AI readiness check of one process
- Fixed written quote per workflow
- One workflow built and tested on real work
- Human approval before customer or financial output
- Personal information kept out of prompts
- Provider and region named for every step
- Data map of what each step sees
- Error log and a manual fallback switch
- Staff training on reviewing AI output
- Documented handover of prompts, code and accounts
How it runs.
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01
Discover
A readiness check: we sit with the people doing the work, measure how often the task happens, find where the data lives and decide whether AI is needed at all.
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02
Design
We pick one workflow, write down what the model may see, choose the provider and region, and decide where a person approves before anything leaves the building.
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03
Build
We build the workflow against a sample of your past emails, invoices or reports, with the personal details removed, and measure where it gets things wrong.
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04
Launch
It runs on real work with the approval step switched on. Your team reviews every output for the first weeks, and every correction is logged so we can see patterns.
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05
Optimise
We tighten prompts and rules using the correction log. Only when one workflow is dependable do we widen it to more cases or start the next one.
What can AI automation do for a small business in Alberta?
AI automation helps most in Edmonton businesses where a workflow reads messy input and produces a draft, which a person checks and sends. Glasshead Tech builds these one workflow at a time, from $3,500, in 2–6 weeks each, starting with the job that eats the most hours.
- Quote requests: email in, quote draft out, an estimator approves.
- Job reports: crew photos and voice notes in, a report in your template out.
- Supplier paperwork: invoices in, checked line items out, before anything posts to QuickBooks.
- Customer questions: routine answers from your own documents; anything else goes to a named person.
Trades usually start with quoting and field reports, as our page on software for contractors and trades explains.
Do you need AI, or is ordinary automation enough?
Often ordinary automation is enough. If the input is already structured, such as a form field or a spreadsheet column, fixed rules do the job more cheaply and never improvise. AI earns its cost only on unstructured input: free-text email, scanned paperwork, photos or speech.
| Option | Best for | From |
|---|---|---|
| Workflow automation | Structured data moving on fixed rules | $2,500, 2–4 weeks per workflow |
| AI automation | Email, documents, photos or speech | $3,500, 2–6 weeks per workflow |
| Custom software | A whole process with its own screens and users | $18,000 – $50,000, 8–16 weeks |
What does AI get wrong, and how is it caught?
Language models write fluent text whether or not it is correct. They misread handwriting, invent a plausible line item or miss a condition buried in an email. That is why every output stays a draft, shown next to the document it came from, until a person approves it.
- Totals and required fields are checked, and anything that fails goes to a person instead of a guess.
- Every run logs what came in and what went out.
- A switch returns the task to the manual process.
- When a provider updates its model, we re-test on saved examples.
What does AI automation cost, and what do you keep?
A workflow costs from $3,500 on a fixed written quote and is running within 2–6 weeks. Ongoing costs are the provider's usage fees, usually billed to your own account, plus any hosting. You own the prompts, code, configuration and accounts, and the handover documents how each piece works.
- The fixed price is agreed before anything is built; see our pricing page.
- You get the provider and region for every step before you approve the build.
- Our guide to AI automation for small business in Alberta lists the questions to ask any vendor.
Asked before they write.
How much does AI automation cost in Edmonton?
Each AI workflow starts from $3,500 in CAD and takes 2–6 weeks, and the figure is fixed in writing before anything is built. Cost moves with the variety of input it has to read, the systems it writes to and how much checking the results need. Model usage fees are separate, depend on volume and are billed to your own provider account where possible.
Will AI replace my office staff?
No, and we do not design it to. The workflows we build prepare drafts: a quote, a report, a batch of invoice lines. Your staff review, correct and approve them, which is faster than starting from a blank page. The aim is to give hours back for work that needs judgement, such as pricing awkward jobs or calling customers.
Is my business data safe with AI tools?
The design decides it. Prompts carry as little personal information as the task allows, you know in writing which provider and region handle each step, and training on your data is switched off wherever the provider offers that option. Depending on the provider, some steps may run outside Canada, and you are told which ones before approving the build.
What is not included in an AI automation project?
Model usage fees, licences for software you already use and changes to systems outside the agreed workflow are not included. By default, a person signs off every customer message and every financial entry, and we do not remove that step without your written instruction after a supervised trial. Projects covering several whole processes are quoted as custom software instead.
Do you build AI workflows for contractors and field crews?
Yes. Quoting and field paperwork are common starting points for trades. Crews send photos, voice notes and hours from a phone, and the workflow turns them into a job report for a supervisor to check. Capture is built to tolerate poor signal and sync later, so a site with weak reception still works.
Do you offer AI consulting without a build?
Yes. If you want advice before committing to anything, AI readiness can be assessed through our IT consulting service, where assessments start from $1,500. You get a written list of the processes worth automating, the ones that are not, whether each needs AI or plain rules, and what each would cost to build.
Often paired with this.
Automation
From $2,5002–4 weeks per workflow
Glasshead Tech builds business automation for Alberta companies, so nobody re-keys data between the tools they already pay for: quotes become invoices, web enquiries land in the CRM with an owner, and reports assemble on schedule. Each rule-based workflow costs from $2,500 CAD, takes two to four weeks and is quoted fixed before work starts.
Custom software
$18,000 – $50,0008–16 weeks
Glasshead Tech does custom software development in Edmonton, building the systems Alberta companies run daily operations on: quoting, scheduling, job costing, safety documentation, field capture, client portals and booking. Builds cost $18,000 to $50,000 CAD and take 8 to 16 weeks, with a fixed quote before coding starts. You own the code, data and accounts at handover.
Data and dashboards
From $4,5003–6 weeks
Glasshead Tech sets up data analytics for Edmonton businesses as one trusted view of the few numbers that run the company, pulled automatically from accounting, job costing, CRM, e-commerce and spreadsheets. It is built in Power BI or as a custom dashboard, from $4,500 over 3–6 weeks, priced in writing before any work.
Name the task that eats your week.
Send a short description of the process, a few anonymised examples if you have them and the tools involved. We reply within 24 hours and tell you honestly whether AI belongs in it.