AI for business owners · New video every week

AI moves fast. I figure out what matters for your business.

I'm Garrett. I build AI products for a Fortune 500 finance company by day. Here I run the tools you keep hearing about against real work, break down the launches worth your attention, and tell you what to do about them.

Watch on YouTube See the log
Garrett Johnson
ReceptionistsNow
BookkeepingNext
ChatbotsQueued
AutomationQueued

The log

Everything I have tried

One row per episode. Open any of them for the tools I tried, what they really cost, and what I would do. Everything here I set up myself and used properly before saying a word about it.

Publishing soon

Smith.ai, Upfirst, OnCrew, My AI Front Desk, and NextPhone, every one of them set up as the same fictional plumbing company: same hours, same three service prices, same instruction to answer questions and book jobs.

Then the same four recorded calls to each. An easy one about hours and service area. A booking, with a leaking water heater and a request for tomorrow morning. A curveball, where the caller interrupts, changes their mind, and asks the price mid-sentence. And an after-hours emergency.

The cheapest of them is free. The most expensive is $199 a month. Whether that gap shows up on an actual phone call is the entire episode.

On the bench

  • Smith.aiFree AI plan, 25 calls a month.Free
  • UpfirstThe cheapest one that answers a real phone.$24.95/mo
  • OnCrewBuilt for trades. 100 calls.$49/mo
  • My AI Front DeskBuilt around appointment booking. 200 minutes.$99/mo
  • NextPhoneFlat rate, unlimited calls.$199/mo
Tools tested05
Price bandFree to $199/mo
Calls per tool04
Scored onThe five questions
What I'd doPublishing soon

The log grows with every episode.

Subscribe on YouTube

How I work · The same five questions, every time

Nobody can tell you the best tool. They don't know your business.

So I don't. I ask every tool the same five questions, answer them with a stopwatch and a calculator instead of an opinion, and let you decide which answers matter to you.

01

Time to live

How long from signing up to the thing actually working. Timed, not estimated. The gap between "5 minute setup" and reality is usually the whole story.

02

Does the job

The one thing you are buying it for. Not the feature list, not the demo. Did it do the actual task, correctly, when it mattered.

03

Under pressure

Every tool looks good on the easy path. I run the awkward one on purpose, because that is the one your customers will find.

04

Real cost

What it costs you at your actual volume, not the number on the pricing page. Meters, overages, and the tier that quietly cannot do the job.

05

Getting out

How hard it is to leave. Two clicks, or thirty days' notice and an email to support. Nobody tests this and everybody regrets it.

Every tool in an episode gets an identical setup and the same scripted situations, in the same order. Nobody gets advance notice, a preview, or a say in the outcome.

Get in touch

Read by a human · Replies within two days

Sponsorships, partnerships, press, or a question about any tool I have covered. One form for all of it. If a pitch needs channel numbers, say so and I will send current ones.

Sponsor note: a placement never buys a recommendation.

About

Why trust a stranger on the internet?

Fair question. Most advice about AI for small business is written by people selling AI to small business. The roundups are affiliate bait, and most "reviews" are assembled from other people's reviews.

I do the homework, so you do not have to.

By day I'm a product manager building AI products for a Fortune 500 finance company. That job is where the testing discipline comes from. This channel is my own thing, separate from it.

Nobody sponsors this channel and nothing on this page is a paid placement. If that ever changes, it will say so right here, in plain language, before you click anything.