Phone calls eat hours
Appointments, price enquiries, cancellations. The same questions every day, often right in the middle of running the business.
AI & automation
Built in my own business, for yours
I'm Artur Hammerschmidt, owner of Escape Universe and its three locations. Since March 2026 I've had my own AI phone assistant taking calls around the clock, plus about a dozen other automations running in the day-to-day business. That's the experience I pass on to other small and medium-sized businesses.
My approach
Helping you help yourself
I want to work myself out of a job. My role is to walk you through it, find the use cases that are worth doing, build the first setup with you and get you running it yourself.
After that, you run it. You'll understand what's going on and you can take it further yourself. If you want a sounding board later, or want to tackle something new, I'm here. No subscription, no lock-in. We sort out the work involved and the terms up front.
You know AI could help. But where do you start?
Self-service platforms promise “set up in three minutes”; enterprise vendors sell six-figure all-in packages. Neither tends to fit a medium-sized service business. What you need is someone who understands your working day, tells you honestly what will work and what won't, and then builds it.
Manual work costs margin
Team planning, marketing posts, review replies, onboarding. Do it all by hand and it either doesn't get done or it eats your time.
Your tools don't talk to each other
Booking system, calendar, Slack or Teams, CRM. Everything runs side by side instead of together.
Services
What I can do for your business
Getting the requirements right is the heart of what I do. Smaller projects I build myself. For bigger or very specialised jobs I'll be upfront about it and put you in touch with specialists from my network. From the first conversation you'll know who takes which part, and why.
Requirements management
First call, sharpening up the use case, an honest feasibility check, a written estimate of the work involved. Before any money changes hands, you'll know exactly what you're getting.
AI phone assistants
Setup and ongoing maintenance, connected to your booking or CRM system. Running live at my three locations since March 2026.
Workflow automation
Team planning, review replies, marketing posts, email drafts, timesheet checks, knowledge bases. Everything that eats time every day.
System integration
Booking system, calendar, Slack or Teams, Google Workspace, WordPress, phone system. Connected instead of side by side.
Tools for your team
Onboarding, rating systems, safety training, shift coordination. Built on ten years of my own experience with several locations.
Introductions to partners
For anything more complex, say data-sensitive industries or enterprise compliance, I know the right specialists. You'll know before the meeting who the partner is and why I picked them.
From live operations
What actually pays off
What a properly set up AI phone assistant delivers at my own locations, since March 2026.
€1,000 to €1,500
saved in payroll costs per month
The AI takes over part of the reception and phone work. At my call volume that's roughly half a full-time role.
100%
of calls get answered
Before that, around 70% of callers were lost to voicemail, at peak times and outside opening hours. Now callers get an answer around the clock, and anything complicated is handed over to a team member.
Booked directly
instead of callers lost
Someone who gets a straight answer in the first few seconds books more often than someone who ends up on voicemail.
These are my own numbers. What pays off in your case depends on call volume and setup. That's exactly what we work out in the first call.
How it runs
My process
1. First call
30 minutes, free of charge. Five questions, and an honest answer about whether I'm the right person for the job.
2. Requirements workshop
We go through your use case and I'll give you a written estimate of the work involved. We sort out the terms up front.
3. Building it
Either by me, on smaller projects, or together with a partner from my network. Always one person to talk to.
4. Handover and a sounding board
You'll take it over and run it yourself. I'll document everything and show you how it works. If you want a sounding board later, I'll charge for the time it takes. No subscription.
Terms
What it costs
I deliberately don't put flat rates on this page. First, how much work is involved depends heavily on what you want to automate and on what your systems look like. Second, so much is moving in AI right now that fixed price tags go out of date quickly, and quoting one anyway wouldn't be honest.
So here's how it works. In the free first call we work out whether I'm the right person at all. In the requirements workshop you'll get an honest, written estimate for your case, before you commission anything. I bill transparently, for the time it takes. No subscription, no monthly fixed costs, no hidden extras.
Why me
What makes me different
From running a business, not from reading a whitepaper
Three locations, our own technology, an AI phone line running non-stop since March 2026. I know what breaks, because I'm the one fixing it on a Monday morning.
Quality first
I bring the same standard to your setup that we bring to building our rooms and looking after our guests.
Small means quick and honest
You talk directly to the person who builds the system and keeps it running. No sales team to get passed around, no escalation tiers. What I can't take on myself, I pass on properly to specialists I trust.
My background
Industrial engineering M.Sc. (University of Bremen, systems development and innovation management). Before Escape Universe I worked as a self-employed business consultant in Australia (renewable energy, process optimisation) and in trend and market research at nextpractice in Bremen. Industry experience at VW, EWE and EMF Holding. Escape Universe since 2016, today with three locations of our own, plus special projects with the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover, the Pferdemuseum Verden and Kloster Dalheim.
30 minutes is enough to tell you where you stand
Drop me a line about what you have in mind. You'll get an honest answer, free of charge and with no obligation. Even if the answer is that it wouldn't be worth it for you.
Get in touch, no obligation