01What the assistant handles: the routine half of the front desk
Most of what reaches a clinic in writing is practical. Are you open on Saturday? Do your vets see rabbits? What should I bring to a first visit? Can I move Thursday's vaccination? Each one has an answer the clinic can write down once and keep current. The assistant answers only from that written material and books the visit, so an owner who finds the site at 22:00 gets a slot instead of a promise to reply in the morning. PROOF48's AUTOMATE plan includes an AI website chatbot that qualifies and books, AI DM and email auto-responders, and booking automation with a CRM. Our post on booking automation describes what a good booking step does: it confirms itself, blocks the slot and reminds both sides. We make no claim that it connects to any particular clinic software. Ask that in your first message.
- Opening hours, address, species treated and a first-visit checklist, written once and answered every time
- Vaccination and check-up bookings, reschedules and cancellations, made into one calendar rather than a second list someone must reconcile by hand
- Questions it cannot answer go to a person with the conversation attached
02What it must never do: triage, diagnose or advise
A veterinary clinic has a harder line than a salon. An owner who writes that a dog has eaten something, or that a cat has not eaten for two days, needs a person quickly, and the assistant's only job is to say that it cannot assess this and to show how to reach the clinic in an emergency. It should not interpret symptoms, say what to give an animal at home, or quote a price for anything that depends on an examination. Our AI assistant page lists medical diagnosis as not a good fit, and for animals we apply the same line: the vet decides. The handoff is set before launch, and you choose what triggers it, such as the topic or the time of day. Here the sensible trigger is any message about a sick or injured animal. A chat window is also the wrong place for an emergency, so the page must say whom to call, and mention a night line only if one exists.
- Sick or injured animal: say it cannot assess this, show the number, stop
- No symptom interpretation, no home-care advice, no prices that need an examination
- Handoff on any message about a sick or injured animal, chosen by the clinic
- Say what is true about after hours; a night number that nobody answers does harm
03Setting it up: the clinic's answers come first
The slow part is not the software, it is deciding the answers. Our AI assistant page describes three weeks: reading how clients actually write to you, building and connecting the assistant, then running every case through it, including unhappy clients and half-finished requests, before it goes live. After launch you review the conversations, sorted into answered, escalated and unanswered. For a clinic, decide before the first week which vet treats which species, what the cancellation rule is, what a first visit involves and who reads the escalations each working day. Collect little: owner name, phone, species and name of the animal, a preferred day and a few words on the reason. An owner's name and phone are personal data, so the consent wording and the retention period are questions for your data protection adviser, and our post on whether client data is safe with a chatbot lists what to ask. Tell owners from the first message that they are writing to an AI.
- Which vet treats which species, the cancellation rule and the first-visit checklist: decided before building
- Collect name, phone, species, the animal's name, a preferred day and a few words on the reason
- One named person reads escalations every working day
- Weekly review of conversations: answered, escalated, unanswered
04Where PROOF48 is the wrong choice for a clinic
We have not built an AI assistant for a veterinary clinic, and none of the eight builds at /work is a veterinary clinic. AUTOMATE costs 2,997 EUR a month and includes everything in GROWTH, including blog posts and ad management, so it is sized for a clinic that wants the full package. If a chat box is all you want, it is probably more than you need and we will say so in the first reply. It covers website chat, DMs, email and booking, not phone or WhatsApp. If most of your bookings arrive by phone, a person at the desk or an answering service will serve you better. A website chatbot also needs a website to sit on. If you have none, a PROOF48 business website of up to about five pages costs 500 to 2,500 EUR, is built in 48 hours and is paid for after the preview.
- AUTOMATE: 2,997 EUR a month, includes everything in GROWTH
- No phone and no WhatsApp: a phone-first clinic needs a person or an answering service
- No veterinary assistant built yet, so we have none to show you
- No website yet: a 48-hour site is 500 to 2,500 EUR, paid after the preview
The closest thing we have shipped: a booking flow, not an AI
We have not built an AI assistant for a veterinary clinic. The closest entry at /work is SCP Shine & Style, a salon in Sector 3, Bucharest, where the site has a booking flow that points at the salon's live booking platform. No AI sits in between. The case study also says we do not publish the salon's booking counts, because we do not measure them.
See the build: SCP Shine & StyleQuestions, answered
Can the assistant tell an owner whether an animal needs urgent care?
No. That is a judgment about a living animal and it belongs to a vet. The assistant shows how to reach the clinic and hands the conversation to a person.
Does AUTOMATE answer the clinic's phone or WhatsApp?
No. AUTOMATE covers an AI website chatbot, DM and email auto-responders, booking automation and a CRM. It does not cover phone or WhatsApp. A standalone WhatsApp or voice assistant is a custom build, priced on request.
Does it replace the receptionist?
It takes the routine written questions and bookings. A person still reads the escalations, and you review the conversations weekly. We publish no figure for desk time saved, because we have not measured it for any clinic.
Will it connect to our clinic software?
We do not claim that it does. Name the system you use in your first message and we will answer for that system.
Where PROOF48 fits
An AI assistant suits the routine written half of a clinic's front desk: hours, species, first-visit questions and bookings. Anything about a sick animal goes to a vet, and the page must say whom to call. PROOF48's AUTOMATE plan costs 2,997 EUR a month, covers website chat, DM, email and booking, and does not cover phone or WhatsApp. We have not built one for a clinic yet.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.