Real deployment
Eliminated 1,400 Hours/Month of Manual Ops Work with AI + RPA
How a US e-commerce brand automated order-routing, inventory sync, and customer-support triage using an AB7-built stack of N8N, Zapier, and a Claude-powered support bot — recovering 1,400 hours of human work every month.
Client
US Direct-to-Consumer E-commerce Brand ($18M ARR, 12 SKUs)
Engagement
3-month build, ongoing maintenance retainer
The challenge
What the client was up against.
A fast-growing DTC brand was running its operations on five disconnected SaaS tools (Shopify, ShipStation, NetSuite, Gorgias, Klaviyo). A 4-person ops team was spending the bulk of every day copy-pasting between systems: reconciling orders, syncing inventory, tagging support tickets, triggering refund flows, and answering ~600 repetitive support emails per week. Hiring more humans was not the answer — they needed automation, but had no in-house engineering capacity to design or maintain it. Two prior consultants had built brittle Zapier zaps that broke under volume.
The solution
How AB7 deployed.
AB7 deployed a 3-person AI & Automation pod (1 architect + 2 automation engineers) to redesign the operations stack. Layer 1: N8N workflows for order-to-ship, inventory sync, and refund triggers — 47 automations replacing the manual copy-paste work. Layer 2: Zapier filters for marketing event tracking. Layer 3: a Claude-powered support bot trained on their 18-month ticket history that auto-resolves Tier-1 tickets (order status, shipping ETA, return policy) and routes the rest. We also wrote runbooks and on-call alerts so the client's ops team can debug failures themselves.
Services engaged
What we plugged in.
- N8N Workflow Automation
- Zapier Integration
- Claude / GPT Support Bots
- Shopify + NetSuite Integration
- AI Engineering
- Operations Re-architecture
Verified outcomes
The numbers, before and after.
Manual ops hours saved
Before
1,600 hrs/mo
After
200 hrs/mo
1,400 hrs/mo recovered
Tier-1 support resolution
Before
Human-only, 4 hr median
After
AI-resolved, 90 sec median
160× faster
Order-to-ship cycle
Before
26 hrs
After
4 hrs
85% faster
Annual operating cost
Before
$220,000 (4 ops FTE)
After
$78,000 (1 ops + AB7 pod)
65% cost reduction
Key takeaways
What this deployment proved.
Recovered 1,400 hours of manual ops work per month
47 N8N automations replacing copy-paste between 5 SaaS tools
AI support bot handles 70% of Tier-1 tickets autonomously
Cut annual ops cost by 65% without losing capacity
Client's own ops team can now debug & extend the workflows
“We thought we needed to hire two more ops people. AB7 told us we needed automation, not headcount. Three months later we'd cut 1,400 hours of monthly busywork and our ops team was finally working on growth instead of order spreadsheets. The Claude support bot alone handles 70% of tickets without anyone touching them.”
How we ran this
The 4-step AB7 deployment pattern.
Every engagement above followed the same four moves. Same shape, different roles.
- 01
Discovery & Diagnosis
Kick-off call, requirements scoping, success-metric definition. We walk away with the role spec and the integration plan.
- 02
Source & Vet
First profiles inside 60 minutes for common roles, 48 hours for niche. NDA-protected, pre-screened, role-fit assessed.
- 03
Onboard & Integrate
IT setup, system access, knowledge transfer, pair work in week one. By day 14, the new seat is operating independently.
- 04
Optimise & Scale
Weekly performance reviews, monthly retros, capacity expansion when ready. 30-day replacement guarantee throughout.
Related deployments
Other case studies you should read.
60% Faster Medical Billing Processing for US Healthcare Provider
How a US healthcare provider reduced billing processing time by 60% and improved collections with AB7 Solutions' dedicated remote billing professionals.
Read deploymentScaled Engineering Team from 5 to 25 in 90 Days
How a US software company rapidly scaled from 5 to 25 engineers using AB7 Solutions' dedicated remote development team, maintaining quality and culture.
Read deployment24/7 SOC Coverage at 65% Lower Cost
How a financial services company deployed 24/7 Security Operations Center coverage using AB7 Solutions, saving 65% vs traditional SOC services.
Read deploymentWant a deployment like this?
Tell us your numbers — we’ll project realistic outcomes.
On a 30-minute call we’ll walk through the deployment closest to your role, stack, and timezone — and project what your before/after table would look like.