Last Wednesday at 3AM, I missed a client message
A ¥1,200 (~$170) order, just gone. I thought right then: I wish I had someone who never sleeps watching my inbox.
Then I found out AT&T is already doing this
The US telecom giant recently went public about using Meta's Llama model — "open-source," meaning free, anyone can download and run it.
My friend Lao Chen in Hangzhou runs Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) account operations for clients. Last month he set up an auto-reply bot using a similar free AI (DeepSeek). He went to sleep, his client placed an order overnight, and he woke up to a closed deal. Half a day's setup, zero cost.
Bottom line: an "open-source large model" is a ready-made AI brain, free to use. Hook it up to WeChat or your website and it'll talk to customers like a human.
Want to try today? Cost: $0 + about 2 hours
Money: completely free. Meta's Llama, Alibaba's Qwen, DeepSeek — all free.
Time: sign up + connect the AI to WeChat, roughly 2 hours. I got stuck on "how to get the AI to actually see customer messages" for half a day — turns out you just drag a few buttons in Coze (coze.cn) and it works.
Technical barrier: no coding. If you can use WeChat, you can do this.
First step: open coze.cn in your browser, sign up with your phone number, click "Create Bot."
Wherever you are right now, here's how to use it
If you're just starting (0 clients): focus on finding customers first. AI customer service isn't your top priority right now — skipping this is totally fine.
If you have 1–2 clients: I'd suggest using free AI to handle the common questions first (shipping, quotes, payment) — don't drop orders at 3AM like I did.
If you're scaling (10+ clients): I'd go full automation. Let AI handle support and order confirmations. Saving ¥5,000 (~$700) per month on labor is realistic.