AI agents for business: definition, examples and how to set one up

What is a business AI agent?

It's an assistant that handles one task in your company: drafting a sales proposal, preparing meeting notes, answering a client. You ask it a question or ask it for a document, the way you would ask a coworker.

It has read your documents before it answers. It knows which file is about which client, which project followed which method, and who worked on it.

Every answer points back to the document it came from, so you can check before you use what it wrote.

How is it different from ChatGPT or a chatbot?

A general-purpose assistant writes well and knows a lot about many topics. It doesn't know your company. Your team has to paste in the meeting notes, dig up the old proposal and explain the context again with every question.

A business agent starts from your documents, already read and linked together. It answers with your track record and tells you what it relies on.

The two work side by side. To translate a text or write an email that needs no context, the assistant you already have is enough. The page "Is ChatGPT or Copilot enough for my company?" covers this comparison in detail.

What are some examples of AI agents in a small business?

Good first tasks come up often and send people digging through old files. A few examples, by role:

• Sales: drafting a proposal from the ones already sent to similar clients
• Management: preparing a briefing or a presentation from a project's meeting notes
• Operations: finding the procedure, document or exchange that relates to an ongoing case
• HR: knowing who worked with which client and on what kind of project
• Consulting: finding past engagements and preparing a response to a tender from your references

What does it need to work?

Your documents, where they already live: SharePoint, OneDrive or Dropbox. Proposals, meeting notes, client files, procedures: it reads them as they are, with no sorting or reformatting on your end.

Saména connects with read-only access and only reads the folders you choose. It doesn't change, move or delete any file. The page "AI connected to SharePoint, OneDrive or Dropbox: how does it work?" explains the connection.

You also need a rough idea of what keeps your team busy. No spec required: it gets sharper as you talk it through with our engineers.

How do you set one up?

With engineers, over a few conversations with you. Here are the steps:

• We get to know you: your line of business, your clients, what takes time in your work
• Saména reads your documents and turns them into your company's memory, organized by client, project, method and team
• Our engineers build your first agents from that memory and show them to you
• You try them on real cases, tell them what's missing, and they adjust

Where does it work?

In the Saména app, where it already knows your clients and projects. You ask it a question with no copy-pasting.

It's also available from Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot if your team already uses them. Either way, it drafts your documents in Word and PowerPoint.

What happens to the data?

Your files stay in SharePoint, OneDrive or Dropbox, and Saména keeps no copy of them. What it retains from your documents is encrypted with a key unique to your company. The master key is stored outside the database.

Servers are in France, and the database is in the European Union. The models that read your documents come from Mistral AI, a French company, and our contract forbids them from training on your data.

If your IT requirements call for it, Saména can also run on your own servers or on a dedicated instance. The details are on the page "Where does our data go with enterprise AI?".

How much does it cost?

There is a one-time setup fee, which mostly depends on the volume of your documents. After that, a monthly subscription covers the whole company.

The number of users doesn't change the price: they're unlimited. Sales reps, project managers and management all use the same agents.

We share pricing in a demo, once we know your document volume. The page "How much does a custom AI agent cost for a small business?" explains what the fee and the subscription cover.

Where should you start?

With a task that comes back every week and sends people searching through folders. One department and a first agent are enough to begin; you expand whenever you want.

The surest way to judge is to watch an agent work on your own documents before you commit. That's what we show in a demo, on your real use cases.

To go further, the page "Custom AI for a small business: where do I start?" walks through these steps. If you run a consulting firm, read "AI for a consulting firm: find past engagements, write proposals".

Frequently asked

Does an AI agent replace an employee?

No. It takes on a task, such as finding the right documents or preparing a first draft. The person reviews, decides and sends. Every answer cites its sources so they can check.

Do we need a technical team?

No. Your team asks questions the way they would ask a coworker. Building and fine-tuning the agents is the job of Saména's engineers, Télécom Paris graduates who specialize in artificial intelligence.

How long does the first agent take?

It mostly depends on the volume of your documents and the task you pick. We discuss it in a demo, once we know your situation. On your side, a few conversations with our engineers are enough.

Can we start with a single department?

Yes. You can start with one department's folders and a first agent, then expand whenever you want.

Is this only for large companies?

No. Saména builds agents for small and midsize companies in automotive (a network of repair shops), environmental engineering and consulting. The subscription covers the whole company, whatever its size.