AI assistant for business, South Africa
An AI assistant that works for the business, not just for you.
When most people say AI assistant, they mean something like ChatGPT: a clever helper that works for whoever is typing. IndunAI is a business AI assistant. It answers your customers on WhatsApp, your website and email, books them into your real calendar, handles the reminders, quotes and invoices, and takes instructions from you on your own WhatsApp. It is software, not a person. From R1 450 a month including VAT, plus a once-off R2 500 setup; fully managed is R4 995 a month.
Try it now. The bubble in the corner of this page is the same assistant, answering for us. Ask it what your customers ask you. If a front desk is all you need, the AI receptionist page is the short version.
only your number can instruct it
message Thabo: your car is ready, collect any time before 17:0016:41
Ready to send to Thabo M.: Your car is ready, collect any time before 17:00.16:41
SendSent to Thabo. If he replies, I will answer him, and it is all in your Conversations tab.16:41
find appointment Friday16:44
Friday: 09:00 Lerato, first visit. 11:30 Sipho, service. 14:00 Anne, follow-up.16:44
An illustration of the owner's side. Only the number you set up for alerts is obeyed, nothing reaches a customer until you tap Send, and a lookup changes nothing.
Two kinds of assistant
Customer-facing assistant vs a personal ChatGPT.
AI assistants come in two kinds that happen to share a name, and it is worth knowing which one you are shopping for before you compare prices.
A personal AI assistant
ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and the rest work for whoever is typing. You ask, and they draft, summarise, translate and suggest. They are good at it, and then you still do the sending, the booking and the chasing yourself.
A business AI assistant
IndunAI works for the business, around the clock. Your customers talk to it on WhatsApp, your website and email; it books into your calendar, sends the reminders, quotes and invoices, and hands the hard conversations to your team. Call it an AI virtual assistant or an AI copilot for business: the point is that it finishes the work.
Why not ChatGPT on your WhatsApp?
Because Meta does not allow it. Since 15 January 2026, Meta's WhatsApp Business terms bar general-purpose AI assistants where the AI is the main thing on offer. A business assistant that books, supports and sells is still allowed. That is our reading of Meta's terms, and the detail is here.
We do not sell you a second ChatGPT for your own desk work. A general chatbot is already in every browser tab, and that is where drafting a letter or researching a supplier belongs. What IndunAI gives the owner is narrower and more useful: an assistant that knows your bookings and your customers, and takes instructions about them.
And if you were looking for a virtual assistant in the other sense, a person working for you remotely, this is not that. IndunAI is software. There is no team of remote assistants answering your messages, and when a conversation needs a person it goes to your own team with the conversation attached.
The admin
Admin it takes off your hands.
An AI admin assistant is only worth paying for if the admin is finished at the end, not drafted for you to finish. These are the jobs IndunAI does from start to end. Some run from the first day, and some you switch on when you are ready.
Answering, day and night
Every enquiry on WhatsApp, your website chat and email gets an answer, at any hour, from your own facts, prices and hours. What it has not been told, it checks with your team rather than inventing.
Booking, moving, cancelling
Appointments go into your real calendar after the slot is re-checked, and a customer can move or cancel in the same chat, without phoning anybody.
Reminders and confirmations
A reminder before every appointment, at the hours you choose, on the channel the customer booked on and, if you want it, a request to confirm, where a no frees the slot for somebody else.
Quotes and invoices
Quotes worked out from your own price list, which you confirm with a tap before they count. Switch invoicing on and finished bookings become invoices priced by the server, with a PayFast link if you use PayFast.
Forms before the visit
Intake and consent forms go out as a link before the appointment and come back filed as a PDF against the booking, not on a clipboard at reception.
Follow-ups and reviews
A review request after the appointment with your Google review link, and one nudge for a conversation that went quiet, if you switch them on.
Handing over
Anything it should not handle goes to your team with the conversation attached, and the customer is told when to expect an answer, worked out from your hours.
What it will not do. It will not do your bookkeeping, answer the phone or research a supplier for you. IndunAI does not connect to accounting software, it answers messages rather than phone calls today, and your own desk work is better done in the general assistant you already have.
From your phone
Instructing it from your own WhatsApp.
This is where a business AI assistant starts to feel like a personal one. From the WhatsApp number you set up for alerts, you can tell your assistant what to do, and it acts only after you have seen exactly what will happen. No other number can instruct it.
Message a customer
Type message Thabo: your car is ready and it finds Thabo in your customer records, shows you the exact message and who it will go to, and sends it only when you tap Send. If he replies, it answers him.
Ask where something is
find appointment Friday or find appointment Thabo brings the answer back from your own records, on WhatsApp. A lookup reads and changes nothing.
Send a form by hand
Type form, the form's name, to and the person, and it sends one of your own forms as the same button the assistant would have sent, after the same preview and the same tap.
Approve the money
Where invoicing asks you first, each finished job's invoice arrives on WhatsApp: one tap sends it, one marks a no-show, and add call-out fee R250 adds a line, with the total and VAT worked out again by the server. A quote the assistant priced waits for your tap the same way.
Hear what matters
Hand-offs reach your phone as alerts, with quiet hours, a mute for each kind of alert and one switch to turn the phone off. None of them can silence somebody disclosing self-harm.
Step in yourself
Reply to any customer from the dashboard, or from the WhatsApp Business app if your number runs on both, and the assistant stays out of that chat while you do.
In the dashboard, the Help chat answers questions about your own setup from a manual written from your own settings, and it cannot change anything. Where we switch it on, an AI bar can also act in the dashboard for the people allowed to use it, such as looking up a day in the diary, drafting an email or changing a setting, and nothing it proposes runs until a person clicks to confirm.
FAQ
Fair questions.
Is this a person or an AI?
An AI. IndunAI is software, not a virtual assistant service, and there is no team of people answering your customers' messages. On your website the chat opens by introducing itself as your business's AI assistant, your privacy notice says you use one, and on a medical practice's instance the first message says it is an AI before anything is asked. When a conversation needs a person, it goes to your own team.
Can it do my admin?
The admin around your customers, yes: answering, booking, rescheduling, reminders, forms, quotes, invoices, payment links, review requests and follow-ups. Not your bookkeeping, your phone calls or your own desk work. It does not connect to accounting software, it answers messages rather than calls today, and drafting and research are better done in a general assistant such as ChatGPT.
Can I message it instructions?
Yes, from the WhatsApp number you set up for alerts. You can tell it to message a customer, send one of your forms or find an appointment, and approve invoices and quotes with a tap. Anything you ask it to send to a customer is shown to you first and sent only when you confirm, and no other number can give it instructions.
Can it be a custom AI assistant for my business?
It is set up around your business from the start: your services, prices, hours, the questions it asks, the words it uses and the name it goes by. If you need it to do something it does not do yet, that is a build, scoped in writing and priced once you have signed up.
What does it cost?
R1 450 a month including VAT for up to 300 conversations, or R2 250 a month for 300 to 500, plus a once-off R2 500 setup to connect and configure the assistant as it is, set up around your business on its own instance. The Managed plan is R4 995 a month with setup included, 2,000 conversations a month and build items you ask for within reason. Bigger work on top is scoped in writing and priced once you have signed up, and software that does something IndunAI does not do at all is priced per project. Meta's WhatsApp message fees are Meta's, and separate.
Try it on your own questions.
The assistant in the corner of this page is IndunAI, answering for us. Ask it what your customers ask you, then book a demo and we will show you the owner's side on WhatsApp. Or write to angus@indunai.co.za.
Where the rest of the detail lives.