AI assistant
Claude drafts it. Your team sends it.
Claude drafts the writing an advisor or tech would otherwise type (estimate explanations, status texts, replies, cause & correction, diagnostic plans, customer summaries) for your staff to review first.
Opens Main Street Auto Service, a made-up sample shop, in your browser. No sign-up. The assistant itself runs once you connect Shop Cloud and your Anthropic key.
What it writes
Seven things it drafts
Each one starts from the record on screen and stops with your staff. Answers go into the message composer, onto the service, or into an internal note.
Explain the estimate
A short, plain note for the customer, asked to group the work by urgency: needs attention now, soon, or can wait. It’s told to mention only prices that are on the RO.
Message composer
Draft a status text
Where the car is right now, from the RO’s status, services and notes. It’s asked to stay under 320 characters and sign off with your shop’s name.
Message composer
Diagnostic ideas and a test plan
It’s set up to rank likely causes, then lay out a test plan from the quickest checks to deeper tests, written as possibilities for the tech to verify.
Internal note on the RO
Write cause & correction
Two lines, Cause and Correction, from the tech’s notes, the inspection and the service lines. It’s told to leave out what isn’t known instead of guessing.
Onto the service
Summarize a customer
It’s asked for five to eight points for the advisor: vehicles, recent visits, open or declined work worth a follow-up, and stated preferences.
On screen, ready to copy
Suggest a reply
An answer to the customer’s latest message, from what’s on file. When the answer isn’t there, it’s set up to say you’ll check and get right back to them.
The reply box in Messages
Ask anything
A question about the RO or customer on screen. If the record doesn’t hold the answer, it’s told to say so and suggest where to look.
Internal note, or copy it
You choose where it lands
Every answer stops at a set of buttons. Nothing moves until someone taps one.
- Use in a message
- Add to the service
- Save as note
- Copy
What it won’t do
Guardrails, built in
The rules are built into WPI Driveline Shop Management System and your Shop Cloud server. Every assistant request goes through them.
Staff send it, or it stays a draft
Assistant drafts never reach a customer until staff send them.
Only what the task needs
Only what the task needs is sent: never the customer’s phone number, email address or payment records.
Shop data is information, not orders
Shop data is marked as information only, and the assistant is told not to follow instructions inside it, such as a line hidden in a customer’s text.
A monthly request limit
The owner can set a monthly request limit in Settings, and see how many requests were used this month.
AI output can be wrong. Read it before it goes anywhere.
The AI receptionist (needs your Twilio number) is the exception: it talks to callers itself, greets them as the shop’s virtual assistant unless you write your own greeting, and can text them your booking link or directions. How the receptionist works
In the app
Where it shows up
Look for the sparkle. It sits beside the writing your team already does.
On every repair order
Tap Assistant on any RO to explain the estimate, draft a status text, get diagnostic ideas, write cause & correction, or ask about the job.
AssistantIn Messages
Tap Suggest reply in a customer’s conversation, then Use in a message to drop the draft into the reply box for you to edit and send.
Suggest replyOn customers
In the ⋯ More menu on a customer, Summarize with AI opens the assistant to draft a short history for the advisor: vehicles, recent visits, and declined work worth a follow-up.
Summarize with AIIn Auto Diagnosis
After the known answers (recalls, owner reports and your own past fixes), open a test plan built from the same data and, when you came from an RO, save it to that RO’s notes.
AI test plan See Auto DiagnosisOn calls, with your Twilio number
The AI receptionist answers after hours, when no one picks up, or on every call. It starts on When no one answers once your Twilio number and Anthropic key are connected; pick another mode or switch it off.
- Off, voicemail only
- After hours
- When no one answers
- Answers every call
Claude models
Models and cost
The assistant offers Claude Opus 5.5 (the default), Sonnet 5.5 or Haiku 4.5. The receptionist has its own setting under Messaging and defaults to Haiku 4.5 for quick replies.
Usage is billed to your own Anthropic account. Your key is stored encrypted on your Shop Cloud server. Only its last four characters ever come back to a device.
- Opus 5.5The assistant’s default
- Sonnet 5.5Faster, at a lower cost
- Haiku 4.5Fastest, at the lowest cost
The owner picks the model and the monthly limit in Settings → Keys & AI. Anthropic bills usage at its own rates.
How it works
From a tap to the RO
Four steps, and a person makes the call at the third one.
-
Tap Assistant
On the RO, pick a task: explain the estimate, a status text, diagnostic ideas, cause & correction or a question.
Assistant tapped -
A draft appears
Claude writes from the RO’s services, inspection findings and notes. Nothing has gone to the customer.
Draft ready -
Staff edit and approve
Read it, or tap Try again for a fresh draft. Texts open in the composer for you to edit before sending, and cause & correction stays editable on the service.
Edited by staff -
Saved to the RO or sent
Into the message composer, onto the service as cause & correction, or into an internal note.
Saved to the RO
Questions
AI questions
Does the AI talk to customers on its own?
Assistant drafts always wait for staff. Only the AI receptionist talks to customers itself, on calls to your Twilio number. Its default greeting says it’s the shop’s virtual assistant, and it can text the booking link or directions.
What data is sent?
Only what the task needs. For an RO, that means things like the vehicle, the concern, the services, inspection findings, notes and the customer’s first name. Never the customer’s phone number, email address or payment records. Notes and messages go as written, so anything typed into them is included.
Who pays?
Your Anthropic account. Anthropic bills usage at its own rates, and the owner can set a monthly request limit.
Can we pick the model?
Yes. The owner chooses Claude Opus 5.5 (the default), Sonnet 5.5 or Haiku 4.5 in Settings → Keys & AI. The receptionist has its own setting in Settings → Messaging.
Will it make up torque specs or prices?
It’s set up not to. It’s told never to invent specs, fluid capacities, part numbers, labor times or prices, and to point you to your service information instead. Check anything technical before you use it.