AI Audit in Alès: The First Profitable Agent for Cévennes SMEs

When you think of Alès, you think of coal, the Cévennes and chestnut groves. What is less known is that the Alès basin has carried out a successful industrial reinvention: around the Alès valley, thousands of employees now work in mechanics, agricultural wholesale, plastics and business services.

A wholesale SME on the Levade zone receives orders by email, phone and fax every morning. Two people spend the morning opening, sorting and re-entering them into the management software. In the evening, invoicing follow-ups are done by hand and two thirds of supplier follow-ups are forgotten. A metalworking subcontractor in Cendras prepares quotes by rereading PDF specifications line by line, because nobody ever took the time to structure those documents.

These companies lack neither courage nor ambition. They lack a method, and the method starts with an audit.

What the AI audit changes in Alès

An AI audit is not a software demo. It is fieldwork, done with you and your teams, on your real processes. In 45 minutes we review your actual flows and produce three things:

• A process map: order entry, quotes, follow-ups, invoicing, quality traceability. We single out the most time-consuming flow, the one that deserves the first agent.
• An estimate before commitment: recovered hours per week, translated into working days, then euros. You know what the investment returns before signing.
• A zero-risk roadmap: automate first, then next, and what stays manual. The audit also exists to avoid spending on worthless projects.

Then we deploy agents on your existing tools: an agent logs orders received by email or PDF and updates your management software, another prepares quotes from specifications, a third triggers client and supplier follow-ups without anything slipping. Agents replace neither business expertise, nor negotiation, nor client relationships. They remove re-entry and dead hours.

An expert on the team, not another tool

The audit is delivered through Fractional AI Direction: a senior AI expert works directly inside your company, 1 to 10 days a month, configuring, connecting and training your teams on real cases. From €990 excl. VAT/month for one day's support, decreasing to €750/day at ten days a month. Cancellable with 30 days notice, no justification required.

How it starts

The 45-minute audit is free and non-binding. The first agent goes live within 30 days.

The only extra costs once the audit is done: Claude Pro at about $20 per user per month, and sometimes an automation platform like n8n or Make at 20 to 50 € per month. Accounts opened in your company's name, no commission for us.

FAQ

Does the audit commit me to anything? No. The 45 minutes are free, non-binding, and the roadmap is yours regardless, even if you do not follow up.

Is the Alès basin big enough for AI companies? AI does not depend on the size of the city, but on the amount of repetitive work done there. A 12-employee SME in Alès spends as many hours on data entry as an 80-employee one in Montpellier.

We are in wholesale with strong seasonality. Agents run continuously, including weekends and peak seasons. That is exactly where the audit highlights the gain.

What if the audit concludes there is nothing to automate? It happens, and it is a useful answer too. You leave with that certainty instead of spending on a useless solution.

Hiring, agency, or outsourcing: the real cost

Hiring answers a permanent, full-time need with the risk of delay and departure. An agency bills days without transferring know-how. Fractional AI Direction brings a full function, adjustable from 1 to 10 days a month, cancellable with 30 days notice, keeping everything built in your name.

Grants to fund your audit and your agents

Occitanie has built some of France's most responsive schemes. The Plan IA Occitanie (€60 million) targets local SMEs directly, the Pass Occitanie covers up to 50% of consulting and integration costs, and AD'OCC supports digital roadmaps across the regional network, from Nîmes to Perpignan. Nationally, Bpifrance's Diagnostic IA subsidizes 50% of a 3-to-10-day expertise mission.

Using one of these channels, the net cost of a senior expert day drops below €500 excl. VAT. That is a double signal for owners: automation pays off, and public funding covers part of it.

This is what we identify during the free 45-minute audit: the fastest channels to activate for your SME, based on its sector, size and location in Occitanie.