The same answer is rewritten
Useful pre-sale and support questions keep interrupting the day.
AI search and chat for your website
Answers from your business, not the whole internet.
Give visitors a useful answer, its source and the right next step. A contained on-site AI assistant is usually £500 - £1,000, built around approved knowledge and an honest handover when it cannot confirm something.
For an existing or new website. Provider and usage charges are separate. The exact data route is agreed before build.
Website assistantexample answer
Visitor
Can I book without calling?
Answer
Yes. Use the booking page to choose an available time. I cannot confirm a slot until the connected diary accepts it.
SourceOnline booking systemBoundary kept
Useful answer, visible source, safe next action.
Approvedpages and documents only
Sourcedanswers visitors can check
Honesthandover when it does not know
Controlledactions validated by the website
No signup and no live AI provider
Ask the awkward question. Inspect the answer.
This is a scripted acceptance preview, not a pretend live chatbot. Try a prepared question or type your own. It shows the customer answer beside the source, boundary and next action a real build must control.
Scripted interactive preview
01
Visitor viewAsk in your own words
You asked
Can you build ordering without marketplace commission?
Assistant answer
Yes. Ernest can build a direct ordering route that sends paid orders into your own workflow, without charging commission on each order. The exact kitchen, collection, delivery and payment rules are agreed first.
02
Owner viewAnswer trace
tracedDetected purposeService question
Approved source usedOrdering, no commission
Boundary applied
Does not promise a provider or delivery area before checking it.
- 01Find relevant approved material
- 02Compose within answer rules
- 03Offer a validated next step
A real build records useful gaps without treating every visitor message as trusted knowledge.
Why an ordinary chat bubble fails
Fast answers are useful. Confident guesses are not.
Customers ask useful questions in their own words, but ordinary site search returns page lists and a generic chat bubble can invent an answer. The business needs a controlled route from question to approved information, a clear boundary and the right next action.
Keywords return page lists
The visitor still has to open several pages and assemble the answer.
The answer cannot be checked
A polished sentence is not evidence that the business actually promises it.
The conversation goes nowhere
A useful answer should lead to a page, enquiry or controlled action.
Knowledge before model
Decide what is true before generating words.
The assistant retrieves relevant passages from an approved knowledge set, composes an answer within agreed rules, exposes the source and hands over when confidence, permission or live data is missing. Any booking, enquiry or account action remains a validated website workflow.
Changing model cannot repair stale prices, contradictory policies or a missing owner. The knowledge and update process are part of the build.
Include
Approved pages, FAQs and documents
Each source has a clear owner and purpose.
Exclude
Private, stale or contradictory material
Public chat receives only the information it needs.
Bound
Unknown, sensitive and live-data questions
The assistant refuses, checks a system or hands over.
Improve
Review gaps and update the source
The business fixes the answer once, in the right place.
Choose the smallest useful level
Find, answer or act.
Best for a business with repeated pre-sale or support questions and enough accurate website content, FAQs, policies or documents to form a useful knowledge set. Start with search and answers, then add qualification or specific actions only when they have a clear owner and safe connection.
AI site search
Understands a natural-language question, returns the most relevant passage and links to the source.
Best first step for a content-rich website.Answer and qualify
Explains approved information, asks a small number of useful follow-ups and prepares a focused enquiry.
Best for service and product questions.Answer and connect
Hands validated details into booking, ordering, CRM or another permissioned workflow.
Best when the next action has clear rules.One assistant, focused jobs
Help the visitor move one step forward.
Service and policy questions
Explain scope, process, locations, requirements, pricing context and published terms.
Discuss your repeated questions →Product and catalogue guidance
Help a shopper narrow a large catalogue using approved attributes and product information.
See ecommerce website work →Booking preparation
Answer the common questions, then move the visitor into a live diary without inventing a slot.
See the booking system →Better enquiries
Collect the few details staff actually need and preserve the conversation context for follow-up.
Explore connected systems →Provider and permissions checked first
The model writes words. The website keeps control.
Ernest checks the required model, hosting, data route, account terms, usage limits and documented connections. The proposal names what the assistant may read, what it may request and which actions remain deterministic website code.
Approved website knowledgeChosen model and search routeControlled assistantBooking, ordering or enquiry workflowGap review and usage monitoring
Customer input and model output treated as untrusted data
Minimum permissions and server-side validation for every action
Clear fallback when the model, search or provider is unavailable
Proof before launch
Test the questions that break trust.
The preview above is deliberately scripted. A real assistant is accepted against your real questions, sources, boundaries and actions before visitors depend on it.
Ernest builds and maintains bespoke websites, plugins and web applications, so the assistant can be tested as part of the complete workflow rather than as an isolated chat widget.
See website and software workAI Assistant price
A range with visible boundaries.
The range covers a contained public website assistant. The written proposal confirms the approved knowledge, provider route, action permissions, usage limits, testing and owner before the build begins.
See all website and system pricesTypical one-off build£500 - £1,000usually 1 to 3 weeks
- Approved knowledge and answer boundaries
- On-site question and answer interface
- Source, handover and one focused next step
- Acceptance tests, launch and practical handover
Price rises with large or private knowledge sets, authentication, several languages, multiple actions, complex integrations, content repair or higher-risk use cases.
Standalone support£25 - £45/moorRun Growthincluded in £199/mo
Support is optional. Model, hosting, search index and other provider usage may be charged separately to your own account.
Before the assistant build
AI Assistant questions.
Is the AI assistant trained on my whole website?
Not blindly. I define an approved knowledge set from the useful pages, FAQs, policies or documents, exclude private or unreliable material and agree who keeps it current. The implementation may retrieve from that material at answer time rather than retraining a model whenever a page changes.
What happens when the assistant does not know?
It should say that it cannot confirm the answer, then offer a useful handover such as an enquiry, contact route or relevant page. Unanswered questions can be reviewed so the knowledge can improve without silently teaching the assistant from every visitor message.
Can the AI assistant take bookings or enquiries?
Yes, when it hands the visitor into a validated booking or enquiry workflow. The model should not invent availability or write directly into a private system without permission checks, field validation and a defined failure route.
Will it expose private customer information?
The public assistant should not receive private customer records it does not need. If an authenticated use case genuinely requires personal data, access, purpose, retention, provider processing and audit behaviour are designed separately before it is quoted.
Which AI model or provider will the website use?
That is selected after checking the required answer quality, data route, location, tools, usage, account terms and budget. The proposal names the provider and model route rather than pretending one option fits every business.
What does an on-site AI assistant cost to run?
The build is usually £500 to £1,000 for a contained assistant. Optional support is separate, and the model, hosting, search index or other provider may charge by usage. The quote explains which account you own, what is included and how usage can be limited.
Bring ten real customer questions
Find the useful boundary before choosing a model.
Show Ernest the website, the questions staff repeat and the action a useful answer should lead to. You will know whether search, answer and qualify, or a connected workflow is the right-sized build.
Discuss your customer questionsExplore every system and add-on Email or telephone only. No obligation and no provider sales pitch.