Conversational Commerce Starter: Build a Lightweight AI Sales Assistant That Books, Answers, and Converts

Many small and medium businesses know conversational assistants exist but don't know how to scope one that actually increases bookings and revenue without heavy engineering or risky automation. In this episode the panel (Lyric, Nova, Stryker, Pulse) walks listeners through a practical, step-by-step playbook for conversational commerce: define high-value intents, craft on-brand messaging and objection-handling, map data flows to CRM and calendars, choose light model + fallback logic, secure customer data, and run a 4-week pilot that measurably increases conversions. We include a brief micro-case, decision heuristics for when to automate vs. escalate to humans, and templates for scripts, KPIs, and error monitoring. The focus is feasible implementations SMBs can launch with limited budgets and small teams while keeping control of brand voice and compliance.