Blue Harbour Navigator™ · Resources

AI and automation questions, answered

The questions owners of 10 to 200 person businesses actually ask, each answered on its own page, with the source behind every number. Independent: no software sold, no commissions taken.

Trevor Jamieson, Blue Harbour Solutions. Last updated 1 October 2026.

Getting started with AI

What should I automate first in my business?Automate the boring, high-volume task your team already does the same way every time, not the most impressive AI demo. The best first projects happen several times a week, follow consistent rules, and eat staff hours in bulk: lead intake and follow-up, invoice reminders, scheduling, and answering the same customer questions.

Automating your core processes

How do I stop losing customers when I miss their calls?Set up a missed-call text-back before anything fancier. When a call goes unanswered, or arrives after hours, the caller instantly gets a text such as "Sorry we missed your call, how can we help?", which keeps the conversation alive while they are still deciding who to call next.

Choosing the right AI tools

ChatGPT vs Claude vs Copilot: which AI tool is right for my business?If your business runs on Microsoft 365, start with Copilot, because it works inside Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams. If it runs on Google Workspace, start with Gemini. Otherwise, try ChatGPT and Claude on your own work for a week: at $20 to $25 a seat, testing both costs less than guessing.

Cost and ROI

How much does AI implementation cost for a small business?Expect $500 to $3,000 to build a first AI automation and $50 to $200 a month to run it. A custom system that replaces a manual back office costs $8,000 to $25,000, and doing it yourself on a business-tier AI assistant costs about $20 per user per month. These are published US prices from one agency, so use them as a planning band.

Hiring help vs doing it yourself

Should I hire an AI consultant or do it myself?Do it yourself when the use case is simple, you have someone capable with time to experiment, and the budget is tight. Most small businesses can get real value from off-the-shelf AI tools without hiring anyone. Hire help when a decision is expensive to reverse, a pilot has stalled, or nobody inside can own it.

More questions are added as they come up. Longer first-hand pieces live in the field notes.