M ost small business owners do not need an AI assistant to dream bigger. They need one that can read the calendar, summarize the inbox, prep the next meeting and know when to ask permission before messing with anything important.

That is the pitch behind Town, a work AI assistant aimed at the administrative layer of small business life.

In this conversation with Forbes’ Richard Nieva, Town CEO Jean-Devis Greze explains how the company aims to take the administrative busywork off the plates of small business owners. Town’s AI assistants – dubbed “Townies”— start with email and calendars, delivering morning briefings, preparing users for meetings and helping follow up on action items. As people use it, Town can suggest recurring tasks to automate, such as forwarding receipts to a finance colleague. Those who get the most mileage out of Town are the types of people who live out of their inboxes, such as recruiters and solo entrepreneurs, he says.

Sound pretty similar to consumer AI agents like Muse and Instinct? One important distinction, Greze argues, is that effective work AI agents also need to know when to stop. Unlike consumer AI agents, which can flood local governments and restaurants with requests with impunity, work assistants need to show restraint. Townie’s ask for approval before sending emails by default, and purchases always require permission. When they gets stuck, he says, their approach is to ask for help rather than keep pursuing increasingly elaborate ways to finish the assignment.

Trust is also certain to Town’s business model. Users pay $50-200 per month for the service, which Greze says keeps the company focused on serving them rather than advertisers, or training on user data.

Like an actually good employee, the ambition is to earn the responsibility, not demand it upfront.

“We don’t ask you on day one to give us the keys to the entire kingdom,” Greze says.