The stack

We are not another agent. We pick the best one.

Every tool we would shortlist today, by function. We choose per job, then set approvals, spend caps and audit inside your own tools.

38
Tools on the shortlist
across 9 functions
4
Frontier models
chosen per task
5
Tests every tool passes
weighted, on your data
0
Paid placements
reviewed every quarter

No paid placements. No vendor affiliation. Reviewed every quarter. Product names are trademarks of their owners.

01 · How we choose

Five tests. Weighted. Every quarter.

A tool makes the shortlist on evidence from your own work, not on a demo. It needs at least 4 of 5 on accuracy and on governance to be considered at all.

The criteria and their weight
Example scorecard · support agent for a Shopify retailer
Illustrative
Option AShortlisted
91/ 100
Accuracy
Integrations
Governance hooks
Cost per task
Vendor viability
Option BRunner up
78/ 100
Accuracy
Integrations
Governance hooks
Cost per task
Vendor viability
Option CFails floor
73/ 100
Accuracy
Integrations
Governance hooks
Cost per task
Vendor viability

Option A wins on accuracy and integrations. Option C is cheapest per ticket but cannot hold a refund cap, so it fails the governance floor. Scores come from a two week shadow trial on real tickets.

02 · The directory

38 tools on the shortlist.

Filter by function
Customer serviceGorgias

Gorgias AI Agent

AI agent inside the Gorgias helpdesk that answers and resolves ecommerce tickets.

We pick it when
You sell on Shopify and most tickets are order status, returns and changes.
Works with
ShopifyKlaviyoSlack
Best forEcommerce brands
Customer serviceIntercom

Intercom Fin

AI agent that resolves customer questions across chat, email and messaging, grounded in your knowledge.

We pick it when
You want one agent across channels, on Intercom or on the helpdesk you already run.
Works with
IntercomSalesforceHubSpot
Best forServices, franchise support
Customer serviceZendesk

Zendesk AI agents

AI agents inside Zendesk that handle multistep requests across messaging, email and voice.

We pick it when
The team already runs on Zendesk and wants to keep its workflows and reporting.
Works with
ZendeskSlackSalesforce
Best forMid-market service teams
Customer serviceSierra

Sierra

Enterprise platform for branded AI agents that take action inside customer conversations.

We pick it when
Volume is high, journeys are complex and the brand needs a bespoke agent.
Works with
CRMOrder systemsTelephony
Best forLarger consumer brands
Customer serviceDecagon

Decagon

AI agents for customer support, configured with plain-language procedures.

We pick it when
Support workflows are complex and the team wants control over every step.
Works with
HelpdeskCRMVoice
Best forScaling consumer and fintech
Customer serviceLorikeet

Lorikeet

Sydney-built AI support agent for complex, high-stakes customer journeys.

We pick it when
Tickets involve accounts, money or compliance, and accuracy outweighs speed to launch.
Works with
HelpdeskChatVoice
Best forFintech, insurance, health
FinanceXero

Xero JAX

Xero’s AI agent for everyday bookkeeping inside Xero, including bank reconciliation.

We pick it when
The ledger is on Xero and reconciliation eats hours every week.
Works with
XeroBank feedsDext
Best forSMEs on Xero
FinanceDext

Dext

Captures bills and receipts, extracts the data and publishes it to the ledger.

We pick it when
Bills arrive by email, paper and photo, and no one should be keying them.
Works with
XeroQuickBooksSage
Best forAny business with high bill volume
FinanceApprovalMax

ApprovalMax

Multi-step approval workflows for bills, purchase orders and payments.

We pick it when
Payables need controls and an audit trail before money moves.
Works with
XeroQuickBooks Online
Best forMulti-site and multi-entity
FinanceChaser

Chaser

Automates accounts receivable: reminders, statements and a payment portal.

We pick it when
Debtor days are drifting and chasing is still manual.
Works with
XeroQuickBooksSage
Best forB2B, wholesale, services
FinanceRamp

Ramp

Spend management with an AI agent that checks spend against policy and codes invoices.

We pick it when
Card spend and bills need policy control across many staff.
Works with
NetSuiteQuickBooksXero
Best forUS entities with heavy card spend
FinanceOracle NetSuite

NetSuite SuiteAgents

AI agents that carry out work inside the NetSuite ERP, rolling out in phases.

We pick it when
The group runs multi-entity on NetSuite and wants agents on the same data.
Works with
NetSuiteSuiteCloud
Best forDistribution, multi-entity groups
Operations and inventoryShopify

Shopify Sidekick and Flow

Sidekick is Shopify’s AI assistant. Flow automates store operations with rules.

We pick it when
Shopify is the product master and admin work lives in the store.
Works with
ShopifyKlaviyoGorgias
Best forEcommerce
Operations and inventoryCin7

Cin7

Inventory and order management that syncs stock across channels, warehouses and wholesale.

We pick it when
Stock lives in more than one place and sells on more than one channel.
Works with
ShopifyXeroAmazon
Best forRetail and distribution
Operations and inventoryLightspeed

Lightspeed AI

Conversational assistant in Lightspeed Retail and Restaurant for plain-language answers on sales and stock.

We pick it when
Stores or venues run on Lightspeed and managers need answers without reports.
Works with
Lightspeed RetailLightspeed Restaurant
Best forRetail and hospitality
Operations and inventoryServiceTitan

ServiceTitan

Field service platform with AI agents and the Atlas app that puts business answers on the owner’s phone.

We pick it when
A larger residential or commercial trades business, mainly in North America.
Works with
QuickBooksPhone systemPayments
Best forTrades at scale
Operations and inventorySimpro Group

Simpro

Field service management for quotes, scheduling, jobs and invoicing, with an AI scheduler.

We pick it when
Service and project trades in Australia, NZ or the UK need one job record.
Works with
XeroMYOBQuickBooks
Best forElectrical, plumbing, HVAC, security
Operations and inventoryKarbon

Karbon

Practice management for accounting firms, with Kai, an AI coworker in early access.

We pick it when
Firm work, email and client records need one home before agents can help.
Works with
XeroQuickBooksEmail
Best forAccounting and bookkeeping firms
Operations and inventoryCliniko

Cliniko

Practice management for allied health: bookings, notes and invoices, with an open API.

We pick it when
Clinics need a stable system of record that agents can read and write through.
Works with
XeroAPI
Best forPhysio, chiro, allied health
Operations and inventoryHeidi Health

Heidi Health

AI medical scribe that drafts clinical notes, letters and documents from the consult.

We pick it when
Clinicians spend evenings on notes. Every note is still reviewed and signed by them.
Works with
Practice softwareTemplates
Best forClinics and GPs
Sales and quotingHubSpot

HubSpot Breeze agents

AI agents inside HubSpot for prospecting, customer service and content.

We pick it when
CRM and marketing already run on HubSpot.
Works with
HubSpotGmailOutlook
Best forB2B and professional services
Sales and quotingSalesforce

Salesforce Agentforce

Salesforce’s platform for AI agents across sales, service and commerce, now in its small business suites.

We pick it when
Salesforce is the CRM of record and agents should work on the same data.
Works with
SalesforceSlack
Best forLarger sales and service teams
Sales and quotingBuilt by PADISO

Custom quote agent

A Claude agent on n8n that quotes from your price book, rules and stock.

We pick it when
No product fits the quoting logic. Only then do we build.
Works with
Price bookERPEmail
Best forWholesale, trades, B2B
MarketingKlaviyo

Klaviyo AI agents

Marketing Agent builds campaigns and flows. Customer Agent answers shoppers on site.

We pick it when
Email and SMS drive revenue and the team builds every campaign by hand.
Works with
ShopifyWooCommerce
Best forEcommerce
MarketingJasper

Jasper

Marketing AI platform with agents for on-brand content at volume.

We pick it when
A marketing team ships high volume content and needs brand voice control.
Works with
Brand voiceYour CMS
Best forMulti-brand marketing teams
People and rosteringDeputy

Deputy

Scheduling and time platform with an AI agent that builds rosters and flags compliance risks.

We pick it when
Shift-based teams across sites with award rules to respect.
Works with
XeroMYOBADP
Best forHospitality, retail, health
People and rosteringTanda

Tanda

Workforce platform whose AI Rostering Agent drafts rosters to budget and award rules for approval.

We pick it when
Labour budget control matters and every roster must be approved before publish.
Works with
XeroMYOB
Best forHospitality, care, retail
People and rosteringEmployment Hero

Employment Hero

HR, payroll and rostering platform with AI built in.

We pick it when
One system for onboarding, payroll and HR across entities.
Works with
XeroMYOB
Best forFranchise and multi-site SMEs
Voice and front deskRetell AI

Retell AI

Platform to build voice agents that answer and make phone calls.

We pick it when
Inbound calls need booking and triage around the clock.
Works with
TwilioCalendarsCRM
Best forTrades, clinics
Voice and front deskVapi

Vapi

Developer platform for voice agents with control over model, voice and call flow.

We pick it when
The call flow is custom and we want to choose the model per call.
Works with
TwilioWebhooksAny model
Best forClinics, multi-site groups
Voice and front deskElevenLabs

ElevenLabs Agents

Conversational voice agents built on ElevenLabs voices and speech models.

We pick it when
Natural voice quality and many languages matter most.
Works with
TwilioSIPWebhooks
Best forHospitality, consumer brands
Orchestrationn8n

n8n

Workflow automation, self-hostable, with native AI agent nodes.

We pick it when
We need a custom agent, data residency or complex logic.
Works with
Any APIClaudeSlack
Best forCustom agents, all sectors
OrchestrationZapier

Zapier

Automation across thousands of apps, with AI steps inside Zaps.

We pick it when
Many SaaS apps, simple triggers and a team that maintains it without code.
Works with
GmailSlackHubSpot
Best forSMEs with many apps
OrchestrationMake

Make

Visual automation platform with AI agents for multi-step scenarios.

We pick it when
Flows branch heavily and the team wants to see the whole scenario.
Works with
Google WorkspaceShopifyAirtable
Best forOperations teams
ModelsAnthropic

Claude

Frontier model family for reasoning, writing, coding and tool use.

We pick it when
The task is long documents, policy following or a multi-step agent.
Works with
n8nAPIAWS Bedrock
Best forClose, quoting, policy-heavy work
ModelsOpenAI

GPT

Frontier model family with broad general capability and a deep tool ecosystem.

We pick it when
The task is general purpose, multimodal or relies on its ecosystem.
Works with
n8nAPIAzure
Best forDrafting, extraction, assistants
ModelsGoogle

Gemini

Frontier model family with long context and native multimodal input.

We pick it when
Inputs are very long or mixed: documents, images, audio and video.
Works with
Google WorkspaceAPIVertex AI
Best forDocument and media heavy work
ModelsxAI

Grok

Frontier model family with access to real-time public information.

We pick it when
The task benefits from current public signals and fast responses.
Works with
APIn8n
Best forResearch and monitoring tasks

Descriptions are general and based on public vendor information. Features and availability vary by plan and region. We confirm both in a Diagnostic before anything is bought.

03 · Models

Four frontier models. Chosen per task.

All four are excellent. We test each task on your data and pick on accuracy, then cost. When a better option ships, we swap it without a rebuild.

Claude
Anthropic
We often start with it for
  • Long documents and policy-heavy decisions
  • Multi-step agents that use tools
  • Close prep, quoting and careful writing
GPT
OpenAI
We often start with it for
  • General-purpose assistants
  • Extraction and structured output
  • Image and voice input
Gemini
Google
We often start with it for
  • Very long context across many files
  • Mixed media: scans, images, audio, video
  • Teams living in Google Workspace
Grok
xAI
We often start with it for
  • Monitoring current public signals
  • Fast research summaries
  • A second opinion in evaluations

Starting points, not rankings. Model strengths change with every release, so the choice is re-tested every quarter.

04 · Whatever we pick

Whatever we pick, the rules stay yours.

Vendors change. The rules do not. Approvals, budgets and audit logs live in your accounts, so swapping a tool never resets your controls.

Approval thresholds
Refunds, payments and price changes over a limit wait for a yes.
Spend caps
A budget per agent, per day. Hit it and it stops.
Audit trail
Every action, input and approver, logged.
Accuracy monitoring
Sampled and scored weekly. Drift is flagged.

No paid placements. No vendor affiliation. Reviewed every quarter. Product names are trademarks of their owners. Scorecard figures are illustrative.

Get your stack picked, and governed.

30 minutes with our founder. We name the tools we would shortlist for your business on the call.