Updated 2026-09-03 · 5 min read
Every AI assistant looks the same on its website: instant replies, appointments booked, open 24 hours. They differ in the questions they'd rather you didn't ask. These are the ten that separate an assistant that runs your salon from a chatbot with a calendar, with the answer any of them should be able to give you. Take them to the demo. One note on question 7: it cites the EU AI Act, which does not apply in the United Kingdom or the United States. There, an assistant saying what it is stays good practice rather than a legal duty; everything else on the list applies wherever you are.
1. Does it book against my real diary or against a copy?
There are assistants that reply beautifully and look at a fake calendar: one that syncs every hour, or every night, or that only knows your opening hours. They hand out slots that are already taken, and that's the fault that costs the most clients, because it reaches your door and there's no room.
The right answer: against the real diary, in the moment, the same one you see in the dashboard and in your Google Calendar if you've connected it.
2. Does it know how long each service takes, and who does it?
A colour doesn't take as long as a cut, and not everybody on the team does highlights. An assistant that works in «30-minute appointments» is going to overlap, and it's going to do it on a Saturday.
The right answer: every service with its duration (and its range, if it depends on the hair), every professional with what they do and their hours, and a warning if a booking comes out shorter than that service needs.
3. What happens when I reply in a chat?
It's the question almost nobody asks beforehand and everybody asks afterwards. If the assistant keeps writing while you're replying, the client gets two voices.
The right answer: the moment you step into a conversation, the assistant steps back in that chat and doesn't come back on its own. Every other conversation stays covered.
4. Which route does it use to connect to my WhatsApp?
There are two: Meta's official API and the number's own session. With the first there's a 24-hour window outside which only templates are allowed, a cost per conversation and, sometimes, a new number. With the second, the number is yours, there's no window and reminders reach people who haven't written in months.
The right answer depends on your size; for a salon, almost always the number's own session. What's serious is not being told.
5. What does it do when it doesn't know?
A client asks about a treatment you don't offer, wants a price that isn't listed, writes in angry. A chatbot makes something up or repeats a menu. A serious assistant says what there is, offers what does exist and, if need be, alerts you and steps aside.
The right answer: it never invents a price, never offers what isn't in your dashboard, and when there's a complaint or a request to speak to a person it passes it to you.
6. Can I give it orders myself, without opening the dashboard?
Move an appointment, block off an afternoon, write to a client who left her coat behind. If all of that means opening a program, it'll get done half the time.
The right answer: you reply in the chat where it alerts you and tell it in your own words. And before doing anything it shows you what it's about to do and waits for your «yes».
7. Does it say what it is?
Since August 2026 the EU AI Act requires an assistant to say that it is one. Law aside, it's what keeps a client from feeling tricked when they find out.
The right answer: it introduces itself as a digital assistant in the first message and repeats it if asked.
8. Where is my data, and can I take it with me?
Your clients are your business. A program that holds on to them is a cage.
The right answer: hosted in the European Union, under a data processing agreement, never used to train models or mixed with other businesses, and exportable from your dashboard whenever you want, with no lock-in and without having to be up to date on payments.
9. What does my busiest month cost?
Prices by conversation bundle read well in January and badly in July. Ask for the price of the month with the most messages last year.
The right answer: a flat monthly fee, no commission per appointment or per new client, and no surcharge for having a good month.
10. Will you let me try it with my own diary?
An assistant you can only see in a video is an assistant that doesn't want you asking the nine questions above with your own data in front of you.
The right answer: a demo with your services and your hours, and you writing from your own phone as if you were a client. If there's a free month on top, better still: the real test is the diary on the second Monday.
What these questions don't measure
They don't measure whether the assistant «sounds natural» or has a pretty website. You can see that in five minutes and it decides nothing. What decides is the list above: whether it really looks at your diary, whether it steps back when you step in, whether it makes things up, and whether it lets you leave. A provider that answers all ten clearly isn't necessarily the best. One that dodges three certainly isn't.