- Simplify workflows and drive growth with Capslock
Through AI agent development, we build agents that answer your phone, reply on WhatsApp and website chat, qualify leads and look up answers for your team. Each one is connected to your CRM and calendar, works within limits you set, and hands off to a person when it should.
Building software for US businesses since 2016 · Based in Yuba City, California · Your accounts, your API keys
What is AI agent development?
AI agent development is building software that can hold a conversation or work through a task on its own. An AI agent understands a request, looks up the right information, takes an action in your tools, such as booking an appointment or updating a CRM record, and hands the conversation to a person when it should. Capslock handles AI agent development end to end, designing, building, testing and maintaining these agents for US small and mid-size businesses.
What does an AI agent actually do?
Every agent we build works through the same five moves, many times a day:- Understands the request. “Can someone look at my AC tomorrow morning?” is a booking request with a time, not just a sentence.
- Looks it up. It checks your approved information: services, hours, service area, prices you’ve published, policies, and your open calendar slots.
- Takes an allowed action. It books the slot, creates the lead in your CRM, sends a confirmation or opens a ticket, and only the actions you’ve approved.
- Checks itself. If it isn’t sure, or the request is outside its job, it doesn’t guess.
- Hands off. It passes the conversation, with a summary, to the right person on your team.
Signs you need an AI agent, not just an automation
- Customers ask the same 20 questions in slightly different words, every day.
- The phone rings while your team is on a job, and callers reach voicemail.
- WhatsApp or website chats sit unanswered overnight or over the weekend.
- Your team has to read each new lead's message to work out whether it's worth a call back.
- Staff dig through PDFs, old emails and shared drives to answer a customer or colleague.
- Booking an appointment takes three or four messages back and forth.
- A form-and-rule automation keeps breaking because people don't answer in the expected format.
If these are conversations rather than fixed steps, an agent is the right tool. If they are fixed steps, start with an automation instead. We’ll tell you which one in the free audit.
What we build
Types of AI agents we build
In our AI agent development process, each agent has one job description: what it answers, which tools it can use, what it must never do and when it brings in a person. We build one agent for one job first, then connect more when the first one has proven itself.
Customer support and website chat agents
Answers questions on your website from your own FAQs, service pages, policies and documents, with no invented answers. It can check order or appointment status, collect details for a support ticket and send the conversation to your help desk or inbox.
Hands off when: the customer is upset, the answer isn’t in your approved content, or they ask for a person.
AI calling and voice agents
Picks up inbound calls when your team is busy or closed, or calls back missed callers and leads who asked to be contacted. It talks naturally, asks your qualifying questions, offers open times from your calendar, books the appointment and logs a call summary to your CRM.
Hands off when: there’s an emergency, a complaint, a billing dispute, or the caller asks for a human. It transfers live or books a callback.
WhatsApp AI agents
Replies to WhatsApp Business messages at any hour from your approved information, qualifies the enquiry, shares booking links or confirms a time, and saves the chat and lead to your CRM. Follow-ups outside WhatsApp’s 24-hour reply window use Meta-approved message templates.
Hands off when: your team takes over from the shared inbox, which can happen at any point in the conversation.
Sales and lead qualification agents
Talks to every new lead from your forms, ads, chat or phone within minutes. It asks the questions your best salesperson would ask (need, timeline, location, budget range), scores the lead, books a call with hot leads and puts the rest into nurture.
Hands off when: a lead is ready to talk pricing or terms, or doesn’t fit your rules. Your sales team gets the summary first.
Internal operations and research agents
An assistant for your own team, in Slack or a simple web page. It finds answers in your SOPs, price sheets, manuals and past jobs and shows the source, summarizes long email threads or documents, and pulls a customer’s history from the CRM before a call.
Hands off when: the answer isn’t in your documents. It says so, rather than making one up. Read-only access by default.
Agents connected to your CRM and tools (n8n and APIs)
In AI agent development, an agent is only useful if it can act. We connect agents to HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Zoho, Google Calendar, Google Workspace, Slack, Shopify, your job or booking software, or any tool with an API, through n8n workflows or direct API calls. Every action, such as “create contact” or “book slot”, is a separate, logged tool the agent is allowed to use.
Hands off when: an action needs approval, such as a refund, a discount or a deletion. It waits in a queue for a person.
Ready to Build AI Into Your Business?
Not sure which agent fits your business? Tell us where conversations get stuck and we'll recommend one agent to start with.
Where to start
Which tasks should an AI agent handle first?
Give an AI agent the conversations that happen every day, follow a recognisable pattern and are easy to hand back to a person: answering after-hours calls, replying to common WhatsApp and website questions, qualifying new leads and booking appointments. Keep refunds, discounts, diagnoses, and legal or credit decisions with your team. Start with one agent on one channel, measure it for 30 days, then add the next channel or task.
Before we build, we agree on one number the agent should move, such as missed calls answered, minutes to first reply, or bookings made outside business hours, and we measure it before and after launch.
| Task | How often | What the agent may do | Good first agent? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answering calls when the team is busy or closed | Every day | Answer from approved info, book, take a message, transfer | Yes |
| Common questions on WhatsApp or website chat | Every day | Answer from your FAQ and policies, capture the lead | Yes |
| Qualifying new leads | Every day | Ask your questions, score, book or route | Yes |
| Finding answers in internal documents for staff | Every day | Look up and cite the source, read-only | Yes |
| Rescheduling and cancelling bookings | Every week | Change bookings within your rules | Yes, once the first agent has proven itself |
| Refunds, discounts, diagnoses, legal or credit advice | Occasionally | Collect the details and pass them on | No. A person decides |
More examples by industry: AI agents for business.
How it works
How we build an AI agent, in 5 steps
Typical timelines: a single-channel agent takes 2–3 weeks from kickoff. A custom calling, voice or WhatsApp agent takes 3–6 weeks, because phone numbers and WhatsApp Business accounts need provider setup and approval.
01.Free AI agent audit
A 30-minute call about the conversations your team handles: who contacts you, on which channel, what they ask and what happens next. Within 3 business days you get written findings: the agent worth building first, the channel it should live on, what it should never do, and the tasks better handled by a simple automation.
02.Agent spec and fixed quote
A one-page job description for the agent: its tasks, the information it may use, the tools and actions it's allowed, its tone, its hard limits, the handoff rules and how we'll measure success. It also covers the price and dates. You approve exactly what the agent will and won't do before we build.
03.Build the knowledge, tools and guardrails
We turn your FAQs, service pages, price sheets and policies into a knowledge base the agent answers from (retrieval, or RAG). We connect its actions to your CRM, calendar and inbox through n8n or direct APIs, and write the instructions and limits that keep it on topic. Everything is built in your own accounts.
04.Test on real conversations, then soft launch
We replay your real past calls, chats and enquiries, then try to break it: off-topic questions, angry customers, wrong information, "ignore your instructions". After that comes a soft launch: limited hours or a share of traffic, with your team reading transcripts, before it takes everything.
05.Review, improve and expand
We review transcripts, add the answers it was missing, tighten its limits and fix anything a connected tool changes. When the first agent is doing its job, we add the next channel or task on top of the same knowledge base.
Our Tools
The tools behind our AI agents
For AI agent development, we choose the model and platform for each agent’s job rather than forcing one stack on every business. You pay the providers directly, in your own accounts, so you can see every cost and switch providers later without rebuilding from scratch.
| Tool | What it does in an agent |
|---|---|
| OpenAI and Claude | The language models that understand requests and write replies. Chosen per agent for accuracy, speed and cost, running on your own API keys |
| n8n | The agent’s hands: the workflows that create CRM records, book calendar slots, send confirmations and alert your team, with every step visible and logged |
| Vector database and retrieval (RAG) | Stores your documents in PostgreSQL pgvector, Supabase or Pinecone, so the agent answers from your approved content and can show where an answer came from |
| Twilio, Vapi, Retell and ElevenLabs | Twilio provides phone numbers and call routing; Vapi, Retell and ElevenLabs provide the real-time voice layer for AI calling agents |
| WhatsApp Business API (Meta) | The official channel for WhatsApp agents, including approved message templates for follow-ups |
| Your CRM, calendar and chat tools | HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Zoho, Google Workspace, Slack, Shopify, or the tools you already use |
Claude
Twilio
WhatsApp Business API
Vapi
Retell
ElevenLabs
HubSpot
GoHighLevel
Google Workspace
Slack
Pricing
How much does AI agent development cost?
At Capslock, AI agent development for a single-channel agent starts from $749, and custom AI calling, voice and WhatsApp agents start from $5,000. An optional care plan starts from $299 a month. You get a fixed quote after a free audit, because the price depends on the channels, the tools the agent connects to and how much knowledge it needs.
$0Free AI agent audit: $0
A 30-minute call plus written findings: which agent to build first, on which channel, and what to leave to a person or a simple automation.
$749+Single-channel AI agent · Starting from $749
One-time. One agent on one channel, such as a website chat agent or an internal knowledge agent for your team. A knowledge base built from your documents, up to 2 connected tools (for example CRM and calendar), handoff rules, testing on real past conversations, team training, a written runbook and a 30-day fix window.
$5,000+Custom AI agents: calling, voice and WhatsApp · Starting from $5,000
Fixed quote after the audit. An AI calling agent or WhatsApp AI agent that answers, qualifies and books into your calendar and CRM, connected to your systems through n8n, with live transfer or handoff to your team. Includes phone number or WhatsApp Business setup, testing on real conversations and a 30-day fix window.
$299/moCare plan · Starting from $299/month
Monitoring and error alerts, fixes when a connected tool changes, knowledge-base updates, small adjustments to the agent's answers, a monthly conversation review and a monthly report. Month to month; cancel with 30 days' notice.
Starting prices. Fixed quote after your free audit. Phone minutes, WhatsApp messaging fees charged by Meta, and AI model usage are billed to you directly by each provider, with no markup.
What moves the price
- The number of channels: phone, WhatsApp, website chat, SMS, Slack
- How many tools the agent can act in, and whether those tools have usable APIs
- How much knowledge it needs, and how tidy your documents are today
- Inbound only, or also outbound calls and follow-ups (outbound needs consent records)
- Languages, for example English and Spanish
- Compliance needs, such as patient, financial or legal information
Will an AI agent pay for itself?
A simple check: take the calls and messages you miss or answer late each month, multiply by the share that would have booked, and multiply by your average job value. Add the staff hours the agent takes off your team, then subtract the monthly running cost (care plan, phone minutes, messaging and AI usage). Compare the result with the one-time build price. We’ll run the numbers with your own call logs and chat history in the audit.
Ready to Build AI Into Your Business?
Want an exact number for your agent? Send us one line about the job you'd hand it, and we'll come back with a fixed quote after a short audit.
Security
Guardrails, security and ownership
An agent talks to your customers in your name, so the limits matter as much as the answers.
- Guardrails written down. Each agent has a written list of the topics it may cover, the actions it may take and the things it must never do, such as quoting unpublished prices, promising refunds or giving medical or legal advice. We test against that list before launch.
- Human handoff, always. Every agent can pass a conversation to a person with a summary: live transfer on calls, team takeover on WhatsApp and chat, or a ticket in your help desk. Customers who ask for a human get one.
- Logs and transcripts. Every conversation, tool call and handoff is recorded, so you can see exactly what the agent said and did, and why.
- Your accounts, your API keys. The agent runs on your own OpenAI or Anthropic, n8n, phone and WhatsApp accounts. You can revoke our access at any time, and you can see every provider bill.
- Least access. Agents get only the permissions their job needs. Internal agents are read-only by default; actions that move money or delete data wait for a person’s approval.
- Honest with callers. Voice agents say they’re an AI assistant and give a recording notice where the law requires it. California requires every party’s consent to record a call. Outbound AI calls go only to people who’ve given consent, because the FCC treats AI-generated voices as artificial voices under the TCPA.
- Clear AI data rules. We tell you what data goes to which AI provider. OpenAI states that data sent through its business API is not used for training by default.
- NDA on request. We’ll sign one before we look at your systems. We don’t handle patient health information without a signed Business Associate Agreement.
More on keeping your business safe with AI: AI cybersecurity for small business.
Our work
AI agents we've built
These are real AI agent development projects our team has built and runs. The images are illustrations; screen recordings are coming soon, and we’re happy to show a live demo on a call.
AI Agent
Illustration
AI calling (voice) agent
The problem: calls come in while the team is busy or closed, and callers who reach voicemail often try the next business on the list.
What we built: an AI voice agent that holds a natural phone conversation, asks the business’s questions and passes the result, with a summary, into the team’s systems.
Results coming soon.
Stack
Voice AI · n8n
WhatsApp AI Agent
Illustration
WhatsApp automation and AI agent
The problem: customers message on WhatsApp after hours and wait until morning, and staff copy chats into the CRM by hand.
What we built: automated WhatsApp conversations that answer customers and capture leads, with a person able to take over at any point.
Results coming soon.
Stack
WhatsApp Business API · n8n
Our Product
Illustration
TheAIReply: our own WhatsApp AI product
We don’t just build agents for clients. We make our own. TheAIReply connects a WhatsApp Business account through Meta’s official WhatsApp Business API with no coding. It replies in the business’s tone, answers common questions around the clock, scores leads by what they ask about, sends order confirmations and status updates, and hands off to the team when needed, all from one dashboard.
Stack
Meta WhatsApp Business API · OpenAI-compatible AI
Why Capslock
Why build your AI agent with Capslock
Agents that know when to stop
We spend as much time on what the agent must not do as on what it does. Every build starts with written limits and handoff rules, and gets tested against them, because one wrong answer to a customer costs more than a missed message.
We run our own agents
We build and run AI voice agents and WhatsApp automations, and we make TheAIReply, our own WhatsApp AI product. The lessons from running agents every day go into yours. Ask for a live demo.
The website, the ads and the agent from one team
We've built websites and run SEO and ads for US businesses since 2016. The page a lead lands on, the ad that sent them and the agent that answers them are designed together, so the agent knows what the customer just read.
Local kickoff, published prices
We're in Yuba City. Sacramento Valley businesses can meet us in person, and businesses elsewhere in the US work with us by video. Starting prices are on this page, and every agent gets a fixed quote before work begins.
You own all of it
Prompts, knowledge base, workflows, accounts, API keys and documentation are yours from day one. If you ever want to run the agent yourself or move to another provider, everything goes with you.
Build an AI agent yourself, hire a freelancer, or work with an agency?
If you need a FAQ bot on your website that only answers questions, a no-code chatbot builder you set up yourself is fine. Bring in help when the agent has to talk on the phone or WhatsApp, act in your CRM or calendar, follow handoff rules, and keep working after the person who set it up has moved on.
| DIY (no-code chatbot builder) | Freelancer | Capslock | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who writes the agent’s limits and handoff rules | You | Usually you | We do, with your team, in a written spec |
| Phone, WhatsApp and CRM actions | Limited to the builder’s add-ons | Sometimes | Built in, through n8n and APIs |
| Tested on real past conversations | Up to you | Varies | Yes, before launch |
| Logs, transcripts and human handoff | Depends on the tool | Varies | On every agent |
| Watched after launch | By you | Rarely | Care plan from $299/month |
| Who owns it | You, inside the builder’s platform | Varies | You, in your own accounts, from day one |
| Starting cost | Platform subscription | Varies | From $749; calling, voice and WhatsApp from $5,000 |
FAQ
AI agent development FAQs
Straight answers to what owners ask us before they hand a conversation to an AI.
What is AI agent development?
AI agent development is building software that can hold a conversation or work through a task on its own. An AI agent understands a request, looks up the right information, takes an action in your tools, such as booking an appointment or updating a CRM record, and hands the conversation to a person when it should. Capslock designs, builds, tests and maintains these agents for US small and mid-size businesses.
What is the difference between an AI agent, a chatbot and an automation?
A basic chatbot answers questions from a script or a FAQ. An automation runs the same fixed steps every time something happens. An AI agent decides which step comes next: it can ask a follow-up question, check your calendar or CRM, take an action and know when to hand off, all within limits you set. If your task always follows the same steps, an automation is cheaper and simpler than an agent.
How much does it cost to build an AI agent for a small business?
At Capslock, a single-channel AI agent, such as a website chat agent or an internal knowledge agent, starts from $749. Custom AI calling, voice and WhatsApp agents start from $5,000. An optional care plan starts from $299 a month. Phone minutes, WhatsApp messaging fees and AI usage are billed to you directly by each provider, with no markup. You get a fixed quote after a free audit.
How long does it take to build an AI agent?
With our AI agent development process, a single-channel agent usually takes 2–3 weeks from kickoff. A custom calling, voice or WhatsApp agent takes 3–6 weeks, because phone numbers and WhatsApp Business accounts need provider setup and approval. Before the build there is a free audit, with written findings within 3 business days. Every agent is tested on real past conversations before it talks to a customer.
Which tasks should an AI agent handle first?
Start with conversations that happen every day, follow a clear pattern and are easy to hand back to a person: answering after-hours calls, replying to common WhatsApp or website questions, qualifying new leads and booking appointments. Keep refunds, discounts, diagnoses, legal or credit decisions with your team. Launch one agent on one channel, measure it, then expand.
Can an AI agent answer phone calls and book appointments?
Yes. An AI calling agent can answer inbound calls or call back missed callers and leads who asked to be contacted, ask your qualifying questions, check open times in your calendar, book the appointment and save a call summary to your CRM. It tells callers they are speaking with an AI, and it transfers emergencies, complaints and anyone who asks for a person to your team.
Can an AI agent work on WhatsApp?
Yes. We connect agents to WhatsApp through Meta's official WhatsApp Business API. The agent answers from your approved information, asks qualifying questions, books times and saves the chat and lead to your CRM, and a person on your team can take over the conversation at any point. We also make TheAIReply, our own WhatsApp AI product.
What happens when the AI agent doesn't know the answer?
It hands off instead of guessing. Each agent has written limits: the topics it may answer, the actions it may take and the triggers that send a conversation to a person, such as a complaint, an urgent request, a question outside its knowledge or a customer asking for a human. Your team gets the full conversation, so the customer never has to repeat themselves.
Which AI models and tools do you use to build AI agents?
We use OpenAI and Claude models, chosen for each agent's job and running on your own API keys. n8n connects the agent to your CRM, calendar, inbox and other tools through their APIs. For agents that answer from your documents we use retrieval (RAG), so answers come from your own approved content. Agent knowledge is stored in PostgreSQL pgvector, Supabase or Pinecone. Voice agents run on Twilio for phone with Vapi, Retell or ElevenLabs for voice, and WhatsApp agents on Meta's WhatsApp Business API.
Is our customer data safe, and do we own the AI agent?
Yes. The agent runs in your own accounts on your own API keys, with only the access its job needs, and every conversation and action is logged. OpenAI states that data sent through its business API is not used for training by default. You own the prompts, knowledge base, workflows and documentation from day one. We sign NDAs on request and don't handle patient health information without a Business Associate Agreement.
Do you build AI agents for businesses outside Yuba City and Sacramento?
Yes. Capslock is based at 1590 Hooper Rd in Yuba City, California, and we can meet in person with businesses across Yuba City, Marysville, Sacramento, Roseville and the surrounding counties. Businesses anywhere else in the US work with us remotely by video, with the same process, the same fixed quotes and the same starting prices.
Which conversation would you hand to an AI agent first?
Tell us in one sentence: the calls you miss, the WhatsApp questions you answer every day, the leads nobody has time to qualify. Within 3 business days you’ll get written findings: the agent worth building, what it would cost, and what should stay with your team. No obligation.
AI agent development in Yuba City, Sacramento and the Sacramento Valley
Capslock Agency is based at 1590 Hooper Rd, Yuba City, CA 95993. For businesses in Yuba City, Marysville, Sacramento, Roseville and across Sutter, Yuba and Placer counties, we can run the audit and kickoff in person, listen to how your phones and messages are actually handled, and train your team on the handoff side face to face. Everywhere else in the US, we work by video, with the same process and the same prices.
Part of our AI solutions services. For fixed-step workflows, see our AI Automation Agency page.
- +1 (530) 819-7542
- hi@capslockagency.com
- 1590 Hooper Rd, Yuba City, CA 95993