What a texted AI concierge is, and how Housefly does it
An assistant you reach by text message instead of an app: what it is good for, what it should never be allowed to do, and how we are building ours.
Most people already have a chat assistant. Few use it for the small, constant jobs of running a business, because opening an app, finding the right conversation and explaining the background again takes longer than the job. A texted concierge removes those steps. You send a message the way you would to a capable assistant, and it already knows who you are and what you were doing.
What makes a concierge different from a chatbot?
A chatbot answers the message in front of it. A concierge carries the relationship. Three things make the difference, and a product that lacks any of them is a chatbot with a nicer name.
| Chatbot | Concierge | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you reach it | Its own app or website | Text messages, where you already are |
| What it knows | This conversation | You, your business and what you have asked before |
| What it learns | Nothing that lasts | Your taste: how you like things written, chosen and decided |
| Who else it serves | Often everyone, from one shared setup | Only you, with your memory kept apart |
What is a texted concierge actually good for?
- Drafting the reply you have been putting off, in your own voice, ready for you to send.
- Remembering what you promised a customer on a call and reminding you before it is late.
- Turning a photo of a receipt, a menu or a whiteboard into something usable.
- Answering the question you would otherwise ask a colleague, at any hour.
- Keeping a running list of decisions so you do not have to.
The common thread is that each job is small, frequent and needs context. That is where a phone message beats an app: the friction of starting is close to nothing, so the job actually gets handed over.
What should a concierge never be allowed to do?
Act on your accounts without your yes. A concierge that can draft is useful. One that can send, pay, delete or post on its own is a risk you carry every time it misreads a message. In Housefly, the software we run the studio on, anything that would change a client's account goes through an approval step: it proposes, a person reads exactly what will happen, and only then does it happen. The concierge is built to the same rule. It replies to you. It does not reach into the world on your behalf.
It should also never mix you up with someone else. The easy way to build a texted assistant is one brain for everyone, which means one member's business can surface in another member's answer. We rejected that design. Each Housefly Concierge member has a sealed memory of their own, and the model only ever sees that member's memory when it answers that member.
How is Housefly Concierge being built?
Housefly started as our own in-house assistant: it prepares briefs before client calls, splits call notes into what we owe and what the client owes us, and drafts monthly reports with the judgement section left for a person. The concierge takes the part people liked most, being able to text it and be understood, and builds it as its own product for members outside the studio.
- Access is by invitation. A number that is not a member gets no reply and nothing it sends is kept.
- Each member gets a sealed space holding their memory, their taste notes and their conversation history.
- When a message arrives, the model sees only that member's space, with no studio memory and no other member's data.
- It replies by text. It has no tool for sending email, spending money or changing an account.
It is not open to the public yet. Founding members are being invited first, and the place to read about it and ask for a seat is https://heyhousefly.com. We would rather open it slowly to people who will tell us what is wrong than widely to people who will not.
Why text, and not another app?
Because the hardest part of handing over a small job is starting. A new app asks you to install it, sign in, learn where things are and remember to open it. A text thread is already on your home screen, already the place you talk to the people who help you, and it works the same on any phone. It also sets a useful limit on the assistant: a text conversation is short, plain and personal, which pushes the replies to be the same.
Text has costs too. It is not the place for a long document or a spreadsheet, and messages can be read by anyone holding your unlocked phone. A good concierge treats the thread as the front door, not the filing cabinet: it keeps the record in the member's sealed memory and replies with only what the moment needs.
Who should not use one?
If your work is mostly in one tool that already has a good assistant built in, a texted concierge adds a second place to look. If you cannot accept any business information leaving your own devices, any assistant built on a hosted model is the wrong fit, ours included. And if what you need is a person to make decisions, a concierge will not do it. It is built to take the remembering and the first drafts, so that the decisions stay with you.
Questions we get asked
It covers part of the same ground: drafting, reminding, organising. It does not replace a person who can make calls on your behalf or use judgement in a room.
No. Each member's memory is sealed, and the model sees only that member's space when it answers. That separation is the reason the product exists in the form it does.
No. It drafts and replies to you. Sending, paying and posting stay with you.
Read about it and request a founding seat at https://heyhousefly.com. Our studio software is described at /housefly.