AI for small business, South Africa
AI for a small business, without the enterprise price.
IndunAI is AI and automation for South African small businesses: one assistant that answers your customers on WhatsApp, website chat and email, books them into your real calendar, sends the reminders and gets the quotes and invoices out, for one monthly price in rand, with nobody new to hire.
Built in Durban, hosted in Johannesburg. The chat bubble on this page is the same assistant, so ask it what your customers ask you. The home page has the whole story.
online, replies in seconds
Hi, how much is a wash and blow-dry for a small dog? Anything Saturday morning?20:16
A small-dog wash and blow-dry is R320 on our price list. Saturday 08:30 or 10:00 are open. Which suits you?20:16
Saturday 08:30Booked for Saturday 08:30. You will get a reminder before the appointment, and you can move or cancel it right here.20:17
An illustration of the pattern, not a real customer. The price comes from the business's own list, and the server checks the slot is still free before it books it.
Where to start
What a small business should automate first.
Start with the work that repeats every day and costs you a customer when it is late, and leave the judgement calls with people. For most small businesses that is this list, in roughly this order.
1. The first reply
A message that waits until the evening is often a customer who has booked somebody else. The assistant answers in the same minute, at 21:00 or on a Sunday, from your own services, prices and answers, and says it will check with the team rather than guess.
2. The booking back-and-forth
"Anything on Thursday?" followed by six messages of times is the most automatable conversation there is. Free times come from your own calendar, Google, CalDAV or GoHighLevel, and the slot is checked again as it books.
3. The reminder nobody sends
Reminders go out a set number of hours before each booking. On WhatsApp they use a template Meta has approved, so they still arrive days after the last message. Cutting no-shows is the long version.
4. The quote and the invoice
Fixed prices are quoted exactly as you typed them, and a job that needs a look first becomes a quote request you price. After the job, the server prices the invoice from your service list, and it goes out by itself or waits for your tap.
5. The follow-up
One review request per booking once the appointment is past, and one polite nudge for a conversation that went quiet halfway. Both stay off until you switch them on, and neither repeats.
What stays with a person
Complaints, refunds, a price for a job nobody has seen. You list what it must never quote, and those go to your team with the whole conversation attached. When you reply yourself, the assistant steps back on that chat.
Moving data between your other apps is a job for workflow tools: see workflow automation for a small business. The full list of what IndunAI automates is on AI automation.
Where your customers already are
WhatsApp AI for small business.
For a lot of South African small businesses the enquiry arrives on WhatsApp, as a text or a voice note, often after hours. So that is where the assistant does most of its work.
Your number, and your phone still works
The number connects from the dashboard through Meta's own connection window. With coexistence it stays on the WhatsApp Business app on your phone too, and a reply you send from the app tells the assistant you have taken that chat over.
Voice notes answered
A customer who sends a voice note gets an answer, because the assistant transcribes it first. It answers messages, not phone calls; answering WhatsApp calls is coming soon.
Your website and email as well
The same assistant runs in a chat bubble on your website, added with one line of code, and it can answer a mailbox you choose.
Meta's WhatsApp message fees are Meta's, and separate from ours: what WhatsApp costs has the arithmetic. The WhatsApp detail is on the WhatsApp AI chatbot and WhatsApp automation.
The price, on the page
The R1 450 answer, and when you need more.
Enterprise AI is sold as a platform and a project. A small business usually needs something plainer: one assistant, set up around its own services, prices and hours, for a monthly price it can budget for.
R1 450 / month, including VAT
+ R2 500 once-off setup
- Up to 300 conversations a month, the assistant as it is, set up around your business: WhatsApp, website chat and email, bookings, reminders, quotes, invoicing, forms, review requests and hand-overs
- 300 to 500 conversations: R2 250 a month
- Managed, fully looked after: R4 995 a month, setup included, 2,000 conversations, build items within reason
- Bigger builds are scoped after sign-up, in writing, and priced before anybody starts on them
- Work IndunAI does not do at all is priced per project
- Meta's WhatsApp message fees are Meta's, and separate
A step it does not have yet
One more form, a document your business sends out, a check before a booking is accepted: that is a build, scoped in writing once you have signed up.
An agent for different work
Work the assistant does not do at all is priced per project: see custom AI agents and custom AI development.
Another system to connect
The calendars are Google, CalDAV and GoHighLevel, and the CRM is GoHighLevel. Anything else is a scoping question: AI integration.
Not sure yet
Start with AI consulting, or book a demo and ask us.
And when you do not need it: a business that already answers every message within minutes does not need an assistant yet. When that changes, compare it with what a receptionist costs, not with other software.
By kind of business
Set up for your kind of business.
Every business gets the same engine, set up with its own services, prices and wording. What changes by trade is what it asks before it books.
Plumbers
The burst geyser at 22:00 answered, and on an urgent job the address taken before any times are offered.
Electricians
Fault-finding visits booked, and quote requests filed with the details already collected.
Garden services
Site visits booked, and the Saturday enquiries answered on Saturday.
Salons and beauty
Bookings per treatment and per stylist, a reminder before and a review request after.
Trades on the tools
The enquiry that arrives while your hands are full.
Medical practices
It says it is an AI first, is designed never to give clinical advice, and sends forms before the visit. For GPs, dentists, physiotherapists and aesthetic clinics, with a live demo at /medical.
Professional services
Consultations booked, with your own questions asked first.
Estate agents
Enquiries answered at any hour, and appointments booked into the agent's own diary.
Online stores
Product questions answered on WhatsApp, with a Shopify catalogue as swipeable cards where it is switched on.
Every service, one assistant
The same assistant, seen from the job you want done.
These are not separate products with separate bills. Each page takes one job the assistant does and goes into it properly.
The AI receptionist
The whole front desk, around the clock.
WhatsApp AI chatbot
On your own number, with buttons, lists and forms.
AI chatbot for your website
The chat bubble on your own site.
AI appointment booking
Your real calendar, and a reminder before the visit.
AI customer service
Answers from your information, and a person when needed.
AI sales agent
New leads answered in seconds, your questions asked first.
WhatsApp automation
Reminders and follow-ups that run by themselves.
AI automation
The front office, from first message to invoice.
AI assistant for business
What an AI assistant does in a business, and does not.
Custom AI agents
Built around your business where the assistant falls short.
Custom AI development
Built from the ground up, priced per project.
AI integration
AI connected to the systems you already use.
AI consulting
What is worth automating, before anything is built.
AI voice agent, coming soon
WhatsApp calls answered by the assistant. Not on sale yet.
FAQ
Fair questions.
Is AI worth it for a business my size?
It depends on how many messages wait, not on how big you are. If you already answer every enquiry within minutes, at every hour, you do not need it yet. If messages sit until the evening or the admin eats your nights, that is the work it takes over, and the monthly report, which you can open from the dashboard, counts the conversations it handled and the bookings that came in after hours.
Can I set it up myself?
Most of it, yes. A new instance starts with a short first-run setup, one question a screen: you pick your trade and it drafts your services, common questions and house rules. A price list or brochure you upload is turned into draft settings for you to check before anything is saved.
The calendar connects from the dashboard, WhatsApp through Meta's own connection window, and the website chat is one line of code. You do not have to do it alone, though: the once-off R2 500 setup on the R1 450 and R2 250 plans is us connecting and configuring the assistant as it is, set up around your business, and on the Managed plan, R4 995 a month, setup is included.
What does it cost?
From R1 450 a month including VAT for up to 300 conversations (R2 250 a month for 300 to 500), plus a once-off R2 500 setup for the assistant as it is, set up around your business. Fully managed is R4 995 a month with setup included, 2,000 conversations and build items within reason. Anything bigger built on top is scoped in writing and priced once you have signed up, and work IndunAI does not do at all is priced per project. Meta's WhatsApp message fees are separate and are Meta's.
Do I need a new number or new software?
No. It answers on the WhatsApp Business number you already have, the website chat is one line of code, and bookings go into Google Calendar, a CalDAV calendar or GoHighLevel, all run from a web dashboard.
What if it gets something wrong?
The things that cost money are not left to the AI: a time is only offered if your calendar has it free, prices come from your own list, and invoices are worked out by the server. When it does not know something it says it will check with the team, and you can step into any chat and take over.
Can it answer phone calls?
Not today. It answers WhatsApp messages, including voice notes, your website chat and email, and it does not answer a phone line. Answering WhatsApp calls is built and in testing, but it is not on sale yet, and the voice agent page says what it will and will not do.
Where is my customers' data kept?
In your own isolated instance with its own database, hosted in a Johannesburg data centre, with its own privacy notice, terms and PAIA manual in your business's name. The AI model that composes the replies runs outside South Africa, and the privacy notice says so. On our provider account, its API terms provide that content sent through the API is not used to train its models; on a client's own AI key, that provider's terms apply instead.
Tell us what your week looks like.
Book a demo and bring the messages you did not get to last week: the one at 21:00, the Sunday one, the one that came in while you were with a customer.
The plain-English guides, written the same way: what is documented, what is not, and how to check it yourself.