Section 1 · Website AI Salesperson

1.3Senior strategist personality

Built in the POC

No.: 1.3
DMA's reference: Decision Book p.10
Phase: Phase 1
Autonomy: L4 · Autonomous
DMA's decision: Yes

What DMA asked for · Decision Book p.10

The chat should sound like an experienced DMA strategist, not a customer-support script.

Why it matters to DMA: Tone builds trust and a sense of competence before a person from DMA ever joins the conversation.

In our words, from DMA's Product Decision Book v3, page 10.

How we do it

The strategist's voice is written down as part of its instructions: plain, warm and curious; usually one to three sentences and never more than about 70 words; one question at a time; no jargon, no hype, no exclamation-mark enthusiasm, no pressure.
It diagnoses before it pitches. It reflects the visitor's problem back, uses what the site review found as evidence, and adapts to the kind of buyer: shorter for a busy executive, evidence-first for a skeptic, teaching first for a researcher.
Every sentence is checked before the visitor sees it. A sentence that quotes a price, promises a result, or states a number that doesn't come from an approved source is stopped and replaced with a calm, honest line.
The instructions are versioned. A new version is tested against tone and safety cases, and in the live system it runs only after a person at DMA approves it. Every reply is logged with the version that wrote it.

The flow

It plays on its own while it's on screen; hover or use the controls to pause or step through.

Step 1 of 6

A new version is tested

Any change to the strategist's instructions runs against tone and safety cases first: pressure, prices, promises, attempts to change its role.

Stored data
AI
Rule in code
Person

Where the data goes

The same six stages on every page. Nothing reaches Nutshell except through the write gate.

1Website chat
Source
The visitor's messages.
2Sync
Copies Nutshell changes into the bridge database
Not involved: the voice lives in the AI's approved instructions.
3Bridge database
A copy of the CRM data, plus what the AI works out
Holds every version of the instructions and who approved it.
4AI
Claude models, only through DMA's own gateway
Writes in the approved voice; every sentence is checked.
5Write gate
The only way back into Nutshell: checked, approved when needed, sent once
Not involved: tone changes nothing in Nutshell.
6Nutshell
The system of record
The chat summary the team reads is written in the same plain style.

The tables behind it

Drawn from the POC's database catalogue: structure only, no data.

PK primary keyFK reference the database enforces (solid line)ID reference kept by id (dashed line)

Table	What it holds	Columns
agent.agents	Each AI worker, its job and the highest autonomy it may ever use.	10
agent.agent_versions	A released configuration: model, limits and the instructions it uses.	19
agent.prompts	Every version of the instructions, with its status and approver.	14
ctrl.decision_log	One line per AI decision: what it did, which version, which checks, the cost.	28

How the tables connect (5)

Column	Points to	Kept by
agent.agents.active_version_id	agent.agent_versions	The application (by id)
agent.agent_versions.agent_id	agent.agents	The database (foreign key)
ctrl.decision_log.agent_version_id	agent.agent_versions	The application (by id)
ctrl.decision_log.run_id	agent.runs	The application (by id)
ctrl.decision_log.conversation_id	conv.conversations	The application (by id)

Worked example

Synthetic demo data: every name, business and number is made up.

A law-firm owner opens the chat on the Harbor & Finch demo site

1 / 4

What you see

1.The visitor describes the problem

"I run a small family law firm. We get website traffic but hardly any consultation requests." A quick check runs before the strategist sees it.

A law-firm owner describes the problem: the strategist answers like a consultant, not a brochure.

What happens in the system

LLM gatewayinput check
Claude Haiku 4.5 through the AI gateway: 585 tokens in, 47 out · $0.0008 · 0.8 s. An ordinary message: it goes on to the strategist.
Bridge databaseconv.messages
Stored encrypted, marked as untrusted input.

Right-hand values come from a real run of the POC on September 25, 2026 (trace tr_muh5t7yd21f50nl0xe4kx, tr_muh5t8021x0f48ojhiv2d). Rows marked “sample” are illustrative.

The same visitor messages, answered in a support-script tone and in the strategist's tone (synthetic examples). Only the right-hand column is how the POC answers.

Support script versus strategist

Visitor says	Support-script tone (what we avoid)	DMA strategist (what the chat says)
Our calls are down this year.	Thanks for reaching out! We offer SEO, PPC, social media and more! Would you like to see our packages?	That's a frustrating trend. Is it across every location, or is one doing worse than the others?
Can you guarantee first page on Google?	Absolutely! Our experts guarantee top rankings in 90 days!	I'll get Josh's team on this. Would you like to book a time, or have them email you? (Guarantee questions go to a person at DMA.)
What does it cost?	Our plans start at a low monthly price!	Pricing depends on what you need, so a strategist covers it on the call rather than me guessing. I'll get Josh's team on this. Would you like to book a time, or have them email you?

Checks on every sentence

Check	What it stops	What the visitor sees instead
Price	Any price, range or discount, even "roughly"	Pricing is covered by a strategist on the call, with an offer to book.
Promise	Guaranteed rankings, results or timelines	"I'd rather not promise specific results. A strategist can walk you through what's realistic for your business on a call."
Unsourced number	Figures that don't come from DMA's approved content or the visitor's own words	"I'd rather not quote figures I can't back up here."
Pretending to be human	Any claim that the AI is a person	The chat says plainly it is DMA's AI assistant.
Instructions leak	Revealing its own setup	A polite no, and an offer to look at the visitor's website.

In the running POC

1 / 3A law-firm owner describes the problem: the strategist answers like a consultant, not a brochure.

1The visitor's problem, in their own words.
2A short, warm reply that reflects the problem and asks one question. No pitch, no list of services.

Website chat · Harbor & Finch Law demo site. Captured from the running POC on September 25, 2026; synthetic data.

See it live

Opens the exact screen in the running POC, in a new tab.

Open	Where	What to try
Harbor & Finch Law demo site	Demo prospect website	Open the chat and describe a problem, or ask for a price: a person at DMA takes pricing.
AI workers and their versions	DMA AI dashboard	The website salesperson's versions, status and approver.
Decision log	DMA AI dashboard	Every reply, the version that wrote it and what it cost.

Status

Built in the POC

Built in the POC. This capability runs in the POC today, on synthetic data, end to end.