AI and automation services. From one business to another.
I'm Artur Hammerschmidt, owner of Escape Universe with three locations in Leipzig, Hannover and Nienburg. My own AI phone assistant has been running at all three locations since March 2026, along with around a dozen other automations in daily use: shift planning, marketing workflows, review replies, knowledge bases, tools for the team. I walk other small and medium businesses through it: onboarding, working it through together, implementation, with the aim that you can carry it on yourself afterwards.
Book a 30-minute introductory call Read what I offer first ↓
My approach: help you help yourself
I want to work myself out of a job. My job: to walk you through it, identify the use cases, build the first setup together and get you working with it. After that it runs at your place. You understand what's happening and you can develop it further yourself. If you need a sounding board later or want to tackle a new topic, I'm there. No subscription, no lock-in. We agree on the work involved and the terms beforehand.
You know AI could help you, but where do you start?
You see tools, providers and promises every day. Self-service platforms promise “set up in three minutes”, enterprise providers sell six-figure all-in packages. Neither tends to fit a mid-sized service business. What you need is someone who understands your daily work, tells you honestly what works and what does not, and then builds it too.
Call volume eats up hours
Bookings, price enquiries, cancellations. The same questions every day, often while you're running the business.
Manual processes cost margin
Shift planning, marketing posts, review replies, onboarding new team members. Doing it all by hand means it either gets left undone or it costs you time.
The tools are there, but not connected
Booking system, calendar, Slack or Teams, CRM. Everything works alongside everything else instead of together.
What I can do for your business
Requirements engineering is my core. On smaller projects I do the building myself. For larger or specialised requirements I'll put you in touch with the right specialists from my network, openly. From the first conversation you know who takes on which part and why that particular partner.
Requirements engineering
Introductory call, sharpening the use case, an honest feasibility check, a written estimate of the work involved. Before a single euro is paid, you know exactly what you're getting.
AI phone assistants
Setup and ongoing maintenance, connected to your booking or CRM system. Live at my own locations since March 2026.
Workflow automation
Shift planning, review replies, marketing posts, email drafts, hours checks, knowledge bases. Everything that eats up time in your business every day.
System integration
Booking system, calendar, Slack or Teams, Google Workspace, WordPress, phone. Connected, instead of side by side.
Tools for your team
Onboarding, rating systems, fire safety briefings, shift coordination. Out of 10 years of running several locations myself.
Referral to partners I trust
For anything more complex than a single project (GDPR-sensitive sectors, enterprise compliance, specialised stacks) I know the right specialists. I refer you openly: before the meeting you know who the partner is and why it's that one.
What actually pays off
What a well set-up AI phone assistant delivers at my own locations. Figures from live operation since March 2026.
These figures come from my own experience. What pays off in your case depends on call volume, how your team is set up and the use cases you choose. We work that out after the introductory call.
Before you start: what's probably going through your mind
Three reservations I hear in almost every introductory call. Briefly addressed here in advance.
?“Will my customers be annoyed if an AI picks up?”
Some will be, but far fewer than most people fear. Most react positively as soon as the AI helps quickly and concretely. At my locations we regularly get “thank you” replies addressed to our Rosa, even from callers who were sceptical at first. Anyone who still prefers a person is passed on within seconds. The quality of the answer is the key here. A sluggish or evasive AI annoys people, and rightly so.
?“Surely the AI can't do everything”
True, and that's exactly why the thinking beforehand matters most. Before the setup we work out together what the AI should be able to do, what it deliberately should not do, when it passes a call on and what gets escalated. No all-singing, all-dancing machine. Instead an AI that does one clearly defined area really well and hands over everything else cleanly. That groundwork decides 80 % of the later success.
?“My business is too complex”
Possibly, and I'll tell you so honestly. In the introductory call, five standard questions settle whether your use case can sensibly be solved with AI or not. If it can't, I'd rather take no job than a bad one. If your requirements run to enterprise scale or specialised compliance, I'll refer you to one of my partners instead of tinkering myself.
Sound like your setup? A 30-minute introductory call is enough to find out whether we're a good fit.
My speciality: leisure, attractions, entertainment
I come from the leisure industry and I know its daily routine first hand. If you run a comparable attraction, you don't have to explain to me how your business works. Seasonality, group logic, local marketing, review management, short-notice requests, shift planning with irregular hours, booking peaks at the weekend. I've been solving all of that in my own businesses for years.
- Escape rooms
- Indoor playground
- Trampoline park
- Laser tag
- Bowling
- Go-kart track
- Mini golf
- VR arena
- High ropes course
- Indoor climbing
- Experience dining
Three concrete examples from practice
- Three locations having to synchronise different bookings. Solved it.
- Review replies needing to run on TripAdvisor and Google in parallel. Solved it.
- A shift-planning tool with no interface to the booking system. Solved it.
Other service-based small and medium businesses are welcome too. The leisure industry is my home ground, but my experience carries further: garages, restaurants, gyms, property managers, studios.
My process
Introductory call
30 minutes, free. Five questions and an honest assessment of whether I'm the right person.
Requirements workshop
On request. We go through your use case and I deliver a written estimate of the work involved. We agree the terms beforehand.
Implementation
Either by me (smaller projects) or with a partner from my network (larger projects). One point of contact.
Handover & sounding board
You take it over on your own. I document everything and train you up. If you need a sounding board later for a new topic or another round, that is charged by the work involved, no subscription.
What it costs
I deliberately don't quote flat prices on this page. Two reasons. First, the work involved depends heavily on what exactly you want to automate and what your systems look like. Second, so much is changing in AI right now that fixed price tags go out of date quickly, which makes them misleading. What really counts is the value for your business.
So it works like this. In the free introductory call we settle whether I'm the right person at all. In the requirements workshop you then get an honest, written estimate for your case specifically, before you commission anything. Billing is open and based on the work involved. No subscription, no monthly fixed costs, no hidden items.
What would my project cost? Write me a short note about what it's about. You'll get an honest assessment, free and without obligation.
Why I'm the right partner
1. From the business, not from a whitepaper
Three locations, our own tech, an AI phone line running live 24/7 since March 2026. I know what breaks, because I'm the one fixing it on Monday morning.
2. Quality first
Escape Universe Leipzig: 4.9 ★ · 417 reviews · no. 1 of 54 on TripAdvisor. Together with Google and Facebook, over 1,900 reviews across all locations. I bring the same standard into your setup.
3. Small means fast, honest and well connected
You talk directly to the person who builds and maintains the system. No sales funnel, no escalation levels, no sales CRM. If I can't handle a project myself, I'll hand you over professionally to partners I trust, specialists who also deliver very large, complex and highly customised projects.
My background. MSc in industrial engineering and management (University of Bremen, systems development & innovation management). Before Escape Universe I worked as a freelance management consultant in Australia (renewable energy, process optimisation) and in trend and market research at nextpractice in Bremen. Industry experience at VW, EWE and EMF Holding. Three of my own locations with Escape Universe since 2016, plus special projects delivered with the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover (“Das Geheimnis der Klosterkammer”), the Pferdemuseum Verden and Kloster Dalheim, among others: escape concepts in museum settings.
GDPR and compliance: what I deliver and what I don't
What I can offer you:
- Tools with EU hosting, certified by the provider as GDPR and EU AI Act compliant
- You get the DPA (data processing agreement) in advance, so your data protection officer can check it
- Sub-processor lists are supplied with it
- No passing on of training data. Your caller data and business data don't go into anyone else's models
What, honestly, I don't deliver myself:
- I don't hold an ISO certification myself (ISO 27001 and the like), and it isn't needed for the kind of service I offer
- For use cases with their own compliance requirements (banks, healthcare, public authorities) I work with certified partners from my network
- If needed I'll refer you openly to a suitable partner from my network and see the handover through. You decide whether and how you carry on from there
Frequently asked questions
How long does a project typically take?
Two to six weeks, depending on complexity. The introductory call settles that within 30 minutes.
What will this cost me in the first year?
That depends a lot on the use case: what gets automated, how involved the integration is and what it's worth to your business. I deliberately don't quote fixed flat prices, because they rarely do the job justice and change quickly in AI anyway. In the introductory call and the requirements workshop you get an honest, written assessment for your case specifically. No subscription, no monthly fixed costs.
Will I be permanently dependent on you after the setup?
No, the opposite is the explicit aim. I'll walk you through the onboarding and the first setup, document everything and train you up. After that the system runs at your place and you can develop it further yourself. If you need a sounding board later or want to tackle a new topic, I'm available, charged by the work involved. But no subscription, no lock-in.
Do you do this yourself or does it go to a partner?
Both are possible. I handle smaller projects on my own. For larger or specialised requirements I refer you openly to suitable specialists from my network. After the introductory call I know your requirements and can recommend precisely. The contract is then drawn up directly between you and the partner.
Do you specialise in particular sectors?
My home ground is the leisure industry: escape rooms, indoor attractions, bowling, laser tag, VR arenas, trampoline parks, high ropes courses, comparable concepts. From there my experience carries over to many other service-based small and medium businesses: garages, restaurants, gyms, property managers.
What happens if the AI gets something wrong?
A weekly audit of the real calls picks that up, and monthly tuning corrects it. For critical errors there's a hotfix within 24 hours.
What about GDPR and certifications?
The tools I use run in EU data centres and are certified by the provider as GDPR and EU AI Act compliant. I supply the DPA and the sub-processor list in advance. I don't hold an ISO certification myself. For use cases with higher compliance demands I work with certified partners from my network.
Can I switch later if I'm not happy?
Yes. The tools I set up for you belong to you. You can cancel the contracts yourself or have someone else take over the maintenance side.
What happens if you personally drop out?
All configurations are documented and you have access to all systems, so you're never dependent on me. In an emergency I can recommend a partner to take over; we set out the handover terms in advance in the service contract.
30 minutes are enough to find out whether we're a good fit
Five questions, an honest assessment. If I'm not the right person, I'll tell you beforehand and recommend someone from my network who fits better.
Or directly: ah@escapeuniverse.de · +49 176 9603 75 79