Putting an agent on your site

What a website chat is actually good at

Most questions on a trades site are the same ten. Do you work in my town. Are you licensed. Can someone come Saturday. How much is a service call.

A chat answers those in seconds, at night and on weekends, then hands the person to your booking calendar.

What it should not do is guess. If someone asks what a full repipe runs, the honest answer is a range you already publish, or a visit. A bot that makes up a number starts a fight you settle later. If your site gets a few visits a week, skip the chat and answer your phone.

You usually have to say it is a bot

California has had a rule since 2019. Business and Professions Code section 17941, added by Senate Bill 1001 and operative July 1, 2019, makes it unlawful to use a bot to mislead a person in California about its artificial identity to push a sale. That same section says you are not liable if you disclose that it is a bot.

Utah is newer and lighter. Senate Bill 226, effective May 7, 2025, created Utah Code section 13-75-103. You have to say it is generative AI if the customer clearly asks. Section 13-75-104 adds a safe harbor. Label it at the start of the chat, keep the label up, and you are not a target for enforcement.

This is not legal advice. Rules differ by state and they change. Ask your own attorney or state contractor board before you rely on it.

"The bot said it" is not a defense

Utah wrote that into the same law. Section 13-75-102 says it is not a defense to a consumer protection violation that generative AI made the statement, did the act, or helped.

Treat the chat window as your own mouth. If it tells a customer the warranty is five years, you are the one holding that.

Do not build around one state's rule either. Colorado passed an AI law in 2024, then repealed and reenacted it. Senate Bill 26-189, from the 2026 regular session, swaps it for rules on automated decisions about housing, lending, and jobs, starting January 1, 2027. A booking chat is not that. Anything here can change in one session.

What to do before you turn it on

• Write down the ten questions you get most, and your answer to each.
• Have the chat say what it is in its first message.
• Give it one hard rule: never name a firm price.
• Send gas, water, and no-heat calls to a phone number right away.
• Test it on your own phone, acting like an annoyed customer.
• Read the transcripts once a week for the first month.

If it cannot pass your own test, leave it off. A site that answers four questions well beats one that answers forty badly.