Operia

In an audit of 2,241 companies, 23% never replied to a web lead, and those that did took 42 hours on average. Reaching out within the first hour made firms nearly 7x as likely to have a real conversation (Oldroyd, McElheran and Elkington, Harvard Business Review, 2011). In a small business, the person who replies is the owner, between jobs. An AI agent can reply in seconds, but no owner will let it hand out discounts or handle complaints unchecked.

A console where the owner decides, in plain language, what the agent does alone and what it has to ask about. Every reply says where it comes from and, if the answer isn't in the sources, the agent doesn't make it up: it says so and hands it to you.

1. Permissions in three plain-language levels: does it alone, asks for your OK, never (hands it to you)
2. Every rule reads like a sentence, not a node-based flow
3. Every reply cites its source: the price list, the capacity guide or the calendar
4. One-tap approvals with context: what the customer asks, the margin against your minimum, the competitor's price
5. The customer knows they're talking to an agent and sees when a person has reviewed a reply
6. Activity log, knowledge gaps and dark mode

Why doesn't the agent decide the discount on its own? Because the owner knows things that aren't in the price list. The design gives them what they need to decide in five seconds: what the customer asks, the margin against their minimum and the competitor's price. The AI prepares, the person decides.