AI receptionist or human answering service for a small business?
AI receptionist, human answering service or a better voicemail? Real costs, limits and who each one suits, from a small business that has run an AI agent.
Business owner · Developer · Founder
Admir Rusidovic Building businesses in the age of AI.
I run Manchester PC, a computer repair and IT support company, and I build Step Into AI (opens in a new tab), an AI platform for UK service businesses. I write about what applying AI looks like inside a company that has to open on Monday.
About
I ran a service business long before I built software for one.
Manchester PC started as a repair business and became an education in how small companies really work: the calls that go unanswered while you are mid-job, the quotes that never get chased, the dozen systems that each hold a different version of the same customer.
Years of that produced a conclusion I could not shake. Most small businesses do not lack software. What they lack is coherence between the software they already have. That is the problem I now build for, and the lens I write through.
- Runs
- Manchester PC Computer repair and IT support, Manchester
- Building
- Step Into AI An AI platform for UK service businesses
- Studied
- Computing for Business Northumbria University
- Based in
- Manchester United Kingdom
Behind the Build
The practical side: what I am building with AI, and how.
Step Into AI · live product
One enquiry, from the first call to the follow-up.
Step Into AI is the AI platform I am building for UK service businesses. It answers, records and follows up every enquiry in one system, and Manchester PC is the first business running on it.
- Live now
- Capture
- Communicate
- Convert
- In a first form
- Retain
- Grow
- Measure
- Next
- Deliver
Staging as published by Step Into AI: stepinto-ai.com/how-it-works (opens in a new tab)
-
So we built our own, on open-source CRM technology, configured around how the business ran. It took almost two years, and even then there were features missing that would have cost more time and money to add.
stepinto-ai.com/about (opens in a new tab) -
We prefer configuration over custom code, because a platform that forks for every customer cannot be maintained or improved. We integrate with the tools you already use rather than insisting on replacing them.
stepinto-ai.com/about (opens in a new tab) -
We are working with a small group of pilot customers now, and we will publish real numbers as soon as we have them. Until then, we would rather show you the product than make claims.
stepinto-ai.com (opens in a new tab)
Latest from the build log
All building with AI → 
How this website was built with AI, and what it still took
AI web development made a site I had wanted for twenty years finally possible. What changed, what did not, and why you still need deep web knowledge.
How I make my Claude Code Max limits last all week
An in-depth guide to Claude Code usage limits: session and weekly limits, prompt caching, effort, subagents, and the workflow that makes mine last all week.
- 1990s
A Commodore 64, a war, a new country
My first computer was a Commodore 64, and with it a fascination with intelligent machines long before they were commercially possible. Then the war in Bosnia changed everything, and my family moved to England to start again.
- 2000s
A degree in Computing for Business
Studied Computing for Business at Northumbria University, a course that treated technology as a business tool rather than an end in itself: how systems, software and data support the way a company actually runs.
- Late 2000s
AnyTackle: a hobby turned business
Turning a hobby into a business, and learning why the two should not be mixed. It ended in financial disaster, and taught more than any course could: margins, cash flow, credit, seasonal swings, the economy, customers, and what it really takes to run a business.
- 2010s
Becoming a dad
The best of life, and the happiest moments of it. Becoming a dad changes what you work for and why. Every decision stops being only about you, and you start building for someone else’s future, not just your own.
- Mid 2010s
A harder lesson
My mum was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). When you face something like this, life teaches you a lesson harder than anything else can. Nothing else matters, and everything you thought was important no longer is.
- Late 2010s
Losing my mum
No words can describe the pain. Depression, and feeling lost in a big wide world. It is the moment you stop being someone’s kid and have to become a man.
- 2020s
Manchester PC: putting it all together
Manchester PC is where everything I had learnt came together. The degree gave me the foundation. AnyTackle taught me margins, cash flow and credit the hard way, and that a hobby is not a business plan. Becoming a dad gave me a reason to build something that lasts, and losing my mum taught me what really matters. It started with just me as a sole trader. Then my wife joined me, and together we built a company we are truly proud of.
- Mid 2020s
The birth of AI
I have been fascinated by AI since I was a kid sitting in front of that Commodore 64, but I never believed it would arrive in my lifetime. It turns out I was wrong. The moment I laid eyes on ChatGPT, I knew everything was about to change, and I embraced it straight away. A lifelong fascination finally became something real: no longer something to read about and imagine, but something I could build with, every single day.
- Now
Step Into AI (opens in a new tab)
Today I am building Step Into AI, an AI operating system for small businesses, delivered as software as a service. It started at home: I transformed Manchester PC to run on AI wherever it could, from voice agents answering calls to AI agents handling the work behind the scenes. Now I am turning what I learnt into a platform for other businesses. Times are tough for UK businesses right now, and I am facing the same pressures as everyone else. So I am learning, building and sharing the whole journey openly, the wins and the setbacks, as AI shapes what comes next.
Work
What I'm building and running
Two businesses I run today and one I am developing, described as they actually are.
Step Into AI
One customer journey. One system.
An AI platform for UK service businesses, offering AI receptionist, business phone, CRM and automated follow-up designed as one system, not five disconnected tools.
About Step Into AIScreenshot of stepinto-ai.com, captured 24 September 2026.
Manchester PC
Where I found out how a business really runs.
Admir's computer repair and IT support business in Manchester, and where he learned how small companies actually operate, and which systems fail them.
About Manchester PCScreenshot of manchester-pc.co.uk, captured 24 October 2026.
WebProjectUK
Websites, hosting and getting found online.
A digital-services business for small companies, focused on the groundwork a business needs before anything more advanced will help.
About WebProjectUKScreenshot of webprojectuk.com, captured 24 October 2026.
On the record
Things you can check.
Published work and press, each linked to the source. None of it is about AI. It is the business the AI work comes from.
TechRound
Expert Comment: What The Upcoming End of The Financial Year Means for Startups (opens in a new tab)One of six contributors to a TechRound round-up, quoted as "Admir Rusidovic, Manchester PC Services LTD" on how Manchester PC runs its year-end review.
The Mirror
'Black Friday sales should be banned - as a small business owner I'm sick at the waste' (opens in a new tab)An opinion piece written by Admir and published under his byline in the Mirror's Money section, which describes him as director of computer repair business Manchester PC.
Capstone Publishing
The Smarta Way to Do Business, by Matt Thomas and Shaa Wasmund (opens in a new tab)Admir is featured in this start-up handbook from Smarta, the UK small business advice site. Written by Smarta editor Matt Thomas with founder Shaa Wasmund, with a foreword by Theo Paphitis, the book is built from the experience of real entrepreneurs: people who have started businesses and learnt the hard way, sharing practical advice for anyone setting out on their own. It was published by Capstone.
Journal
From the Journal
Original pieces on AI, software and running a business, written from inside a working company.
Building a brand has never been more important
Marketplaces and social platforms are great places to start, but you don't own the audience. Why small businesses should build a brand worth paying more for.
AI receptionist or human answering service for a small business?
AI receptionist, human answering service or a better voicemail? Real costs, limits and who each one suits, from a small business that has run an AI agent.
The real risk of building your business on one platform
Selling on TikTok Shop, Etsy, eBay or Amazon looks easy. A Tameside seller's frozen earnings show the risk. The hard lessons of relying on one platform.
100 applicants for one café job: what is happening to UK jobs?
Over 100 people queued for one part-time café job in Manchester. What ONS data, employers and AI tell us about the UK entry-level job market.
Courses
Practical AI, taught from the shop floor
Courses drawn from running a business and building software with AI. In development: the curricula are published so you can see where they are going.
AI Core
AI for Small Business Owners
The practical foundations: where AI fits your business, what it costs and what it must not touch.
In development
AI Entry
AI Assistants for Trades and Local Service Businesses
ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini in the working week: quotes, replies, job reports, review responses and posts.
In development
AI Core
Never Miss an Enquiry
AI receptionists, follow-up and lead handling for UK service businesses.
In development
Free resource
How much work is your business losing? Find out in seven days.
A guide and a spreadsheet for UK service businesses: count the calls, messages and quotes that slip through, and put a rough figure on them before anyone sells you a fix.
- A seven-day enquiry log that takes ten minutes a day
- A workbook that adds up missed calls, reply times and unchased quotes
- Seven fixes you can make this week for free, with the scripts
- A fair test for any paid option, so you only buy what pays