How do I tell a real AI offer from the hype?

If you run a small business, you are being pitched. Calls, emails, messages under your posts, each one promising AI can sort out the phones, the quotes or the marketing, and few of them have looked at your business first. The real thing and the hype can sound the same in a pitch. Here is how to tell them apart.

First, find out who they are. Ask who you would be paying, how they found you and what they are offering. Then check for yourself. ABN Lookup, from the Australian Business Register, is free and shows whether an ABN is active or cancelled and whose it is. A business that is hard to find now will be harder to find when something goes wrong.

Second, ask what happens after the free part. If something is free, ask whether there is a sales call afterwards and what would cost money. Free is fine. A free demo that exists to book a sales call is a different thing, and you are allowed to know which one you are getting.

Third, get it in writing before money moves: the work, the price, the ongoing charges, and who owns the accounts, the phone numbers and the data if you leave. Clear answers help you compare offers. They are not proof on their own.

Fourth, be careful with guarantees. Ask what exactly is guaranteed, what conditions apply and what happens if the promise is not met. A straight operator tells you the limits without being asked: what the tool will not do, and the kind of business it does not suit.

And the simplest test of all: did they ask about your week before they told you what you need? Anyone recommending a tool before they know which job you want off your plate is selling the tool, not answering your question.

A Three Fixes report is the advice on its own. An AI writes your plan from the week you describe: where AI could help, where you don't need it, what agencies usually charge for the bigger jobs, and the questions to ask before you sign. We don't sell anything else.