Building a Custom Agent Framework to Replicate the Small Business Consulting Workflow
What if an AI could walk through a client engagement the same way a consultant does - asking the right questions, identifying the right problems, and recommending the right starting points? Here's how I'm building that.
This post is a work in progress. I'm publishing it early to share what I'm building and why.
When I sit down with a new small business client, I follow a pretty consistent process. Ask about the biggest time drains. Understand what already exists. Look for the quick wins. Figure out where the real leverage is.
It's not magic - it's a repeatable workflow built from pattern recognition across a lot of similar businesses.
So the obvious question: can that workflow be encoded into an AI agent?
What I mean by "agent framework"
Not a chatbot. Not a form. An actual multi-step AI workflow that can:
- Gather context - ask the right intake questions in the right order
- Identify bottlenecks - cross-reference answers against known patterns for small business pain points
- Generate a prioritized recommendation - what to automate first, what to ignore, what to come back to later
- Produce a deliverable - something the business owner can actually act on
The goal is to replicate the output of a 60-minute Clarity Session, structured the same way a consultant would structure it.
Why this is interesting
Most "AI for small business" tools are either generic chat or narrow point solutions. Neither reflects how a consultant actually thinks.
A consultant doesn't just answer questions. They follow threads. They notice what the client doesn't mention. They push back when an answer doesn't add up. They sequence recommendations based on what a business can actually absorb.
That's the workflow I'm trying to encode.
What I'm building
More detail coming as the build progresses. The short version:
- A structured intake agent that adapts its questions based on business type and prior answers
- A pattern-matching layer that maps answers to known opportunity categories
- A report generation step that produces a plain-English summary with ranked recommendations
- Integration hooks so the output can feed directly into follow-up workflows
What comes next
I'll be posting updates as this develops - what's working, what's not, and what I'm learning about the limits of encoding human judgment into an automated workflow.
If you're a small business owner curious about what this could do for you, or a developer interested in the agent architecture, reach out.
Building something similar? Working on AI workflows for professional services? I'd like to hear about it.