Picture a small taqueria that does takeout. It's 10:40 at night and the kitchen is clean. A message comes in on Instagram: "Two family taco boxes and a dozen churros for pickup tomorrow at noon. How much, and do you have the vegetarian box?"
The owner sees it at 7 the next morning, between the produce delivery and opening the grill. By then the customer has already asked the place down the street, and it answered.
Why the reply time decides the sale
People who write to a business expect an answer quickly, and they don't wait long. In Invoca's 2026 survey of US consumers, 56% said they expect a business to respond within one hour. On social media, where many small businesses get their questions, the Sprout Social Index 2025 found that 73% of social users will buy from a competitor if a brand doesn't respond. Invoca and Sprout Social both sell software for customer conversations, so read their numbers with that in mind. The direction is clear anyway.
Messages have become a normal way to buy. In a 2025 study by Meta and Kantar across 22 markets, 73.3% of consumers said they prefer messaging when they contact a business. For a takeout place, a salon or a repair shop, that means the order often starts in a DM, not at the counter.
And customers are fine with an AI answering, as long as it's fast and honest. In Sprout Social's late-2025 survey, 69% said they're comfortable with brands using AI to give them faster care.
What it costs, and what to compare it with
The person businesses usually hire for this is a salesperson. Federal data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, published on O*NET, puts the median pay for retail salespersons at $35,410 a year in 2025. A salesperson does more than answer messages, so this isn't a one-for-one swap. But few small businesses can keep someone answering DMs at 10:40 at night.
An AI Sales Consultant costs $49 a month with one channel included, and each additional channel is $9.
For most owners, the honest comparison is with what happens now: a question that waits until morning, and a customer who got an answer somewhere else.
How to hire one
Hire an AI employee before a person. Set it up in your own ChatGPT.
1. Pick the work you want off your hands: calls, messages or posts. See it done on our sample businesses first.
2. Hire an employee at smashone.us.
3. Set it up by talking in your own ChatGPT, the one you already use. It walks you through each step.
Questions owners ask
How much does it cost?
$49 a month with one channel included; each additional channel is $9.
Sources: Invoca, 2026 consumer survey · Sprout Social Index 2025 and Q4 2025 Pulse Survey · Meta and Kantar, The State of Business Messaging 2025 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via O*NET OnLine, Retail Salespersons, 2025.
