Nobody hires a stranger on the strength of a brochure. You watch them work a shift.

That is the problem with every page that promises an AI employee: the page is written by the company selling it. So we did the only honest thing we could think of. We opened two businesses of our own, put AI employees in charge of them, and left the doors open. They are online now. You can write to them before you hire anything.

Two storefronts, and we say plainly whose they are

Tampa Pasta House is a fresh-pasta trattoria in Tampa. Margaret Ellison is the chef-owner: she is on the pass at seven in the evening, which is exactly when the messages arrive.

Casa Lista Home Repair is one man and one van. Mateo Salgado does small repairs around Tampa, in English and in Español, and he is usually under a sink when the phone lights up.

Both are sample businesses that we run ourselves, and every page and profile says so. We are not showing you a customer list. We are showing you the work, because the work is the only part you cannot fake.

At Tampa Pasta House: ask the questions that break a script

Start with the feed — Facebook, Instagram, the Telegram channel. Tonight’s plate, the name and the price straight out of Margaret’s catalog of 100 items. The AI SMM manager writes it and publishes it; nobody types those posts by hand.

Morning in the Tampa Pasta House kitchen: Sloane, the AI SMM manager, photographs the morning post while Margaret rolls out pasta dough.
Sloane shoots the morning post while Margaret rolls the dough.

Then write to it. Messenger, Instagram Direct, or the Telegram bot. Ask what a hungry person would ask, and then ask something harder. Do you have gluten-free pasta? Table for two, Friday around seven? What’s the chef’s shellfish situation?

Watch three things. It answers from the menu Margaret actually set, not from a guess. It asks the question a good host would ask back. And the table request goes into the book as a request for Margaret to confirm — because a request and a confirmed table are two different things, and an employee who blurs them costs you a dining room.

Then ask it something it cannot know. The way it says “I don’t know, I’ll pass this to Margaret” is the part no marketing page can show you.

At Casa Lista: ask in Spanish, then ask for something he doesn’t do

Write to Casa Lista in Spanish. It answers in Spanish, because the customer chose the language, not the software.

At noon, Mateo lies on his back under a client’s kitchen sink with a wrench while the homeowner explains the problem from the doorway; his phone lies face down.
Noon: Mateo is under a sink, and the messages keep arriving.

Describe a real problem — a dripping faucet, a door that won’t close. The AI staff does what a good dispatcher does: asks what and where, asks when you’re home, checks your problem against the 91 services in Mateo’s catalog, and files the job with the details attached for him to confirm.

Now ask for a new electrical panel. Mateo is a solo, unlicensed handyman, and the honest answer is no. You will get that no, in plain words, with the job handed back instead of quoted. An employee who says no on your behalf is worth more than one that says yes to everything.

What is live there today

Facebook, Instagram and Telegram — posting and replies, Instagram Direct included. That is what is running in both storefronts as you read this.

On the sidewalk by a white work van at midday, Sage, the AI video maker, crouches low to film a before-and-after clip while Mateo closes his toolbox behind her.
Sage shoots the before-and-after clip right by the van.

The same staff works the surfaces a small business actually lives on. Your Google Business Profile is the one most US owners underrate: it is where someone ends up who searched “Italian near me” or “handyman near me” at eight in the evening. Hours and specials posted, the public questions answered, replies to reviews drafted and waiting for the owner’s word — nothing goes public before you say so. The AI video maker turns a plated dish or a before-and-after photo into a short vertical clip and sends it to every channel the business has connected.

Evening in a full dining room: a guest raises her hand with a table request, and Avery, the AI administrator, leans in and points to a free table by the window while Margaret passes with two plates.
Avery takes a table request; Margaret is the one who confirms.

They were hired the way yours would be

Neither storefront had a setup project. There is no screen anyone had to learn. Both were set up by talking — in the same ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini app you already have open — and both are still managed that way: change the hours, add a service, hold a promotion, read tomorrow’s posts before they go out.

After closing, chairs up on the tables: Avery turns a tablet toward Margaret, who points at one line of tomorrow’s post while Sloane types the fix.
After closing, Margaret edits tomorrow’s post before it goes out.

That is also the order we think a business should hire in. Work shows up; you hire the AI employee first, put it on the job, and see what is left over. If something is still left over, you hire a person for exactly that part — and you know precisely what that part is, because the rest is already covered.

The doors are open

Ten minutes is enough. Read a few posts. Send a message you would actually send. Ask for something unreasonable and watch it refuse politely. Then decide.

Both storefronts open from one page: smashone.us/examples — Tampa Pasta House and Casa Lista Home Repair.

Judge us by what our AI employees already do in public. It is the way we would want to be judged.

SMASHONE CORPORATION, Florida, United States