The AI receptionist covers your phone and inbox. For the repetitive work behind it, I build custom automations: sorting leads, reading documents, moving data between the systems you already use. I design them, build them, and run them for you.
Or see the AI receptionist if your problem is missed calls.
Automations that take a tedious, data-heavy task off your plate and do it the same way every time. A few kinds of work they tend to fit:
If you can describe the task to a new hire in a page, there's a good chance it can be automated. If it can't be, I'll say so.
You don't need to become an AI company. You already have a good business, and I take the busywork off it. Let people do what people are good at, and let automation handle the boring stuff and the heavy lifting you don't have time for.
I build in checkpoints wherever judgment matters, like approving a reply before it goes out in your name. Your data only goes where we've agreed it can.
Approvals arrive as an email or a notification on your phone. Read it, tap a button, and you're done. If there are dozens a day, I build a simple review screen where your team can work through them in one place. I take care of everything behind the scenes.
You know your business and your customers better than anyone, and your personal service is what got you here. Automation gives you time to do more of it.
Automation isn't all or nothing. When the system is confident, it can handle things on its own. When a decision is tough or needs your judgment, it hands off to a person. We decide together where that line sits, and we can move it as your trust grows.
I start with the business problem and the math, not the technology. Ten hours a week back is a quarter of a full-time job, capacity your team gains without a new hire. If an automation won't pay for itself, I'll tell you.
A free 30-minute call, then a closer look at the process. We agree on what success looks like and write down today's baseline, so the results are measurable.
I build the automation and connect it to your tools. You see it working on real examples before it goes live. For the AI receptionist, I build it around your business: your hours, your services, your answers, which calls and emails it handles and when, and which details matter to you. For a custom automation, we start with one small piece that's working before we add more.
It goes live with monitoring, and with a person in the loop wherever judgment matters. From there, a monthly plan keeps it running and healthy.
I run it for you. I set up and manage everything your automations run on, so you never juggle vendor accounts or bills. Your data is always yours.
A custom build has a setup fee and a monthly plan. The setup fee is quoted for the project, based on what the work is worth to you, not on how long it takes me. The monthly plan covers hosting, the AI services it uses, monitoring, support, and fixes when a vendor changes something, with a reply within one business day. New automations are quoted as their own builds.
I'd rather give you a number you can check against what the work saves you. On the discovery call, I'll tell you what I think it's worth and why.
Client case studies will appear here after the first pilots finish. In the meantime, here are automations I built and run for my own business.
My own project
When someone emails me, an AI assistant replies right away. It answers questions about my work, takes messages, and when someone has a project in mind, asks what I'll need to know. It copies me on every reply, and when it's a hot lead, my phone gets a push notification, so I can follow up personally even faster.
Language model · Workflow automation · Email
Read the case studyAI receptionist
Hear what it does: call a demo receptionist to see how one works for a small service business. Warren, the same kind of receptionist, answers my own business line and books discovery calls on my calendar.
Voice AI · Language model · Workflow automation
Read the case studyMy own project
Finds new App Store reviews, decides which need a reply, and drafts one with Claude. Nothing is posted until I approve it.
n8n · App Store Connect API · Claude · TypeSafe
Read the case studyFrom the blog: Why every AI automation needs a regular checkup
I'm donating two automation builds to nonprofits, picked for fit from the nonprofits I talk with. I take one repetitive task off your plate, built around the tools you already use, with no setup fee. Once it's live, a monthly plan covers running it, and we measure the results against a baseline over 90 days.
I'm Duane Fields. I've been building software and leading engineering teams for more than 30 years, from Netscape Navigator to VP of Software Engineering at GLG. At GLG, my teams built the internal tools the business ran on: sending emails, scheduling calls, vetting experts, and screening candidates. That's the same kind of work I automate today. Most recently I ran technology at Sur La Table, where I led the company's AI adoption, from the technical rollout to training people in every business function.
I'm still hands-on every day. When a job outgrows the off-the-shelf tools, I write the software myself. When you work with me, you get the person who does the work, not a handoff to someone junior.
Small and mid-sized businesses with a repetitive, data-heavy task and no technical staff. I work remotely, nationwide, and I'm happy to meet in person around Austin.
No. You describe the task. I choose the tools, build it, and run it.
A setup fee quoted for your project, and a monthly plan to keep it running. I'll give you both numbers on the discovery call, and I won't quote an hourly rate.
We start small and prove one piece before anything bigger, so there's little at stake if it isn't right. If a task isn't a good fit for automation, I'll tell you on the first call.
Your monthly plan includes monitoring: I get alerted when an automation fails, and I reply within one business day. I don't offer after-hours emergency coverage, so I design each automation to fail safely: when something goes wrong, it pauses and flags a person instead of pushing ahead.
Your data is always yours. What else you own, like custom code, and how a handoff works if we ever part ways, is spelled out in our agreement, so we'll settle it before I build anything.
The goal is to take the repetitive part of their jobs off their plates, so they can spend their time on the work that needs a person: customers, judgment calls, and the things that grow the business. In most businesses, that's the work that's falling behind right now.
I run your automations on infrastructure I manage, set up separately for each client, and I only ask for the access to your systems that a given job needs. Before I build anything, we decide together what data the automation can see and which AI services it may send it to. I don't use your data to train anything. The AI model providers I use say they don't train on data sent through their business APIs. That's different from the free and personal chat apps, which use conversations for training by default unless you opt out. If your team uses those today, that's worth a look. For anything sensitive, a person reviews the output before it goes anywhere.
I help businesses stop losing hours to repetitive work: answering new leads, handling paperwork, and moving data between the tools they already use. If that sounds like someone you know, I'd be grateful for an introduction. Or a nonprofit with paid staff: I'm donating two builds, and I'd love an introduction.
Book a short discovery call. Tell me about it and I'll tell you whether I can help.
Book a discovery callPrefer the phone? Call Warren, my AI receptionist, at (737) 265-8825. Ask it about my work, or have it book the call for you.