Skeleton Crew · For owners about to hire
About to post a job? Holding one open right now? Read this before you spend the salary.
I'm Ray Dietrich. I've spent twenty-five years consulting, from big direct-to-consumer brands to shops with one truck. Across my own companies, I've grown without hiring. Video editors. Writers. Graphic designers. Admin assistants. Ad managers. Seats I would have filled, AI fills now, on a schedule, a lot of it before anyone clocks in.
Skeleton Crew is for the seat you're about to fill. Before you hire, I show you what AI takes, what stays human, and what that seat would really cost you.
The thesis
The same report every Monday. The same edit on every video. The same caption rewritten for five channels. The same follow-up email to every lead. You're about to pay a full salary for work that looks the same every week.
Anything that repeats can be built once and run by AI. A project holds what the job needs to know. Memory holds the rules you've had to repeat. Skills hold the step-by-step. Scheduled tasks do the work every morning without being asked.
Your team keeps the judgment, the relationships and the calls only people can make. The next seat goes to AI. That's the skeleton crew.
The seats AI already fills
These aren't predictions. Every one of them runs today across my own companies. And that's just this year.
Marketing
Creative
Sales
Operations
Admin and reporting
$68,081
Bleeding through 129 public discount codes over 24 months in one of my brands. One AI sweep found it. It was shut off in an afternoon. No analyst on payroll.
How it works
01 · Headcount Audit
Tell me the role you're about to hire for: the pay you'd offer and what they'd do in a normal week. I send back what AI takes, what stays human, and what the seat would cost you.
02 · The build
Projects, memory, skills and scheduled tasks, connected to the email, calendar, files, store and ad accounts you already use.
03 · The trial
The bot does the job you were about to fill. You judge the work. If it falls short, post the listing. You've lost nothing but a month.
04 · Autopilot
Tools change and connections drop. I keep every bot running each month and add the next role when you're ready.
Not layoffs
You don't let anyone go. Skeleton Crew starts with the seat that's empty: the job listing you were about to post, or the person who just gave notice. Hold that hire, build the bot, and see what it does in thirty days.
Your people stay your people. They just stop doing the work a bot can do.
What it costs
Free start here
Before you hire: what AI takes, what stays human, and what that seat would cost you. Confidential, and sent to you only.
$1,997 one-time build + $497/month Autopilot
The backbone your bots run on: projects, memory, skills and scheduled tasks, built on your business and kept running every month. Month to month, cancel any time.
priced from your audit
Every seat the audit says AI can take, built and run for thirty days before you hire. Priced against the salaries you don't pay.
The ground rules
Free · Headcount Audit
Fill this in. Start with the role you're about to hire for: the title, the pay you'd offer, and what that person would do in a normal week. I send back what AI takes, what stays human, and what the seat would cost you.
It's confidential and comes to you only.
Questions
Owners about to hire for admin, marketing, sales support or operations. If you sign the paychecks and you're about to add one, it's for you.
No. I build it. You see the output and decide.
Claude, set up with projects, memory, skills and scheduled tasks, and connected to the tools you already use.
No. I'm an operator, not an agency, and I don't sell software. I build it the same way I run my own companies.
No. Skeleton Crew is built around the seat you haven't filled yet.
Only if you tell them. Everything comes to you.
The calls that need judgment, the relationships your customers trust, and work that's different every day. The audit says so plainly, role by role.
Ray Dietrich · Ardent Executive Consulting.
