Lead capture to CRM with auto follow-up
Add to CRM → AI-written personalised intro email → notify sales rep
Trigger: Contact form submission. Tools: Zapier + HubSpot + ChatGPT plugin. Build time: 2–3 hours. Saves: 20–30 min/day.
AI workflow automation · South Africa
AI automation for South African businesses.
We automate the quoting, lead follow-up, invoicing and reporting work that eats a morning a week — connecting the tools you already use with Zapier, Make or n8n, so the repetitive part happens without you.
Lead capture, end to end.
Before
A contact form submission sits in an inbox until someone notices it. A team member manually copies the details into a spreadsheet or CRM, writes an intro email from scratch, and pings the sales rep on WhatsApp. If it's a busy day, that can take hours — or fall through entirely.
After
The form submission lands in the CRM automatically. An AI-drafted, personalised intro email goes out within seconds. The assigned sales rep gets notified immediately. Nothing waits on someone remembering to check an inbox.
Tools: Zapier + CRM + ChatGPT pluginBuild time: 2–3 hoursSaves: 20–30 min/day
Five we build most often.
Each one below is something a reader will recognise as their own problem — not a hypothetical.
Invoice payment reminder sequence
Send escalating reminders → log response in accounting software
Trigger: Invoice due date approaching (3 days, 1 day, overdue). Tools: Zapier + Xero/Sage + Gmail. Build time: 1–2 hours. Saves: 1–2 hours/week.
Meeting summary to team
Auto-transcription → AI summary → emailed to attendees + logged to Notion
Trigger: Meeting ends in Teams or Zoom. Tools: Otter.ai/Fireflies + Zapier + Notion. Build time: 30 min setup. Saves: 20–30 min per meeting.
Google review response pipeline
AI drafts professional response → owner reviews → response posted
Trigger: New Google review posted. Tools: Zapier + ChatGPT + Google Business Profile. Build time: 2 hours. Saves: 15 min per review + faster response time.
Social media publishing pipeline
AI generates 3 social variations (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) → scheduled in Buffer
Trigger: Blog post or product update published. Tools: Zapier + ChatGPT + Buffer. Build time: 2–3 hours. Saves: 45–60 min per post.
Tool costs, honestly.
The automation tool itself is usually the cheap part. Build cost depends on how many steps and integrations are involved — a one-trigger automation like the invoice reminder above is a couple of hours' work; a multi-branch workflow with several tools takes longer. Book a free audit and we'll scope it before you commit to anything.
| Tool | Best for | Price (ZAR approx) |
|---|---|---|
| Zapier | Beginners, 7,000+ integrations | R0–R1,600/month |
| Make | Advanced, visual builder | R0–R1,200/month |
| n8n | Developers, self-hostable | R0 (self-hosted) |
| Power Automate | Microsoft 365 users | Included in M365 |
Where automation is the wrong answer.
One honest caveat.
If you're doing something twice a year, or the process changes every single time, automating it usually costs more in setup than it will ever save. We tell clients this upfront during the audit — building an automation nobody ends up using isn't a good use of anyone's budget, ours included.
Who delivers this
Deon Botha
Founder & AI Implementation Consultant
Deon Botha founded DB23 eCommerce to help South African businesses adopt AI without the enterprise price tag or the jargon. He designs and runs every AI workshop and training session personally — no outsourced facilitators — drawing on hands-on implementation work across website design, automation, and digital marketing for SME clients around Cape Town and further afield. Deon focuses on tools businesses can start using the next working day, not theory.
Connect on LinkedInAutomation questions.
AI automation means connecting your existing tools (CRM, accounting, email, calendar) so repetitive tasks happen automatically without manual triggering. AI adds intelligence to those workflows — generating text, classifying content, or making routing decisions. No-code tools like Zapier and Make handle the connections; a ChatGPT plugin or similar adds the AI layer. No developer required.
Ready to automate the boring part?
Tell us what's eating your team's time. We'll scope a workflow audit and tell you honestly whether automation is worth it.