Christmas peak without seasonal hires: what to hand to AI and what stays with people

By Jason Sibley

Why the peak is different this year

Plenty of owners are weighing up whether to take on temporary staff for the Christmas rush. Temps need recruiting, training and managing. By the time they're useful, the busiest week may be over. Running a peak on a tired team has its own cost.

A third option is to handle the extra volume with the people you already have. Move repetitive writing and organising to AI, so your team has time for work that needs a person. Black Friday is on 27 November 2026, so plan backwards from that date. There's more on this in do more with the team you have this week.

Much of the pressure comes from answering the same questions and typing the same updates by hand. AI is reasonably good at that work. Treat everything it produces below as a draft for a person to read before it goes anywhere.

Hand to AI

• Peak-week FAQ answers, drafted from your own delivery and returns information. Paste in your real cut-off times and policy, and AI turns them into plain answers. The Black Friday FAQs guide shows how to prepare that information.
• Order-status reply templates, so "where is my order?" gets a clear, kind answer in seconds rather than minutes. The guide on AI for customer emails covers the basics.
• Review replies for a human to read and send. The guide to AI Google review replies explains how to keep them sounding like you.
• Rota drafts for a manager to check. AI can draft a rota from availability and opening hours. The manager checks it against contracts, breaks and what people have actually agreed to.
• Social posts announcing Christmas opening hours clearly, without anyone staring at a blank screen.
• Meeting notes turned into to-do lists, with a name against each job. Give them a quick read-through before sharing them with the team.

If customers message you on WhatsApp, read the guide on handing a Meta business agent chat over to a person before the rush starts.

Keep with people

• Refunds
• Complaints
• Anything involving money
• Upset customers, who want to be heard by a human
• Staff decisions, including who works when and who gets time off
• Anything legally sensitive
• Final say on prices

If a mistake would cost real money, damage a relationship or land you in a dispute, a person decides. AI can still draft a first version for them to edit.

None of this is legal, tax or financial advice. For employment questions, ask a solicitor or Acas. For anything touching your accounts or VAT, ask your accountant.

A two-week plan before 27 November

Week one: get the groundwork down

• [ ] Put your delivery cut-off times, returns policy and opening hours in one document, using your real current wording.
• [ ] Look through your inbox and messages, and note the questions customers ask most.
• [ ] Run the prompt in the next section and read the result line by line.
• [ ] Correct anything wrong and fill in every gap the AI has flagged.
• [ ] Decide who approves what: one named person for replies, one for the rota, one for social posts.

Week two: test and rehearse

• [ ] Publish the approved FAQ on your website or pin it where customers will see it.
• [ ] Save the reply templates somewhere the whole team can reach them.
• [ ] Draft the rota and opening-hours posts, and have the manager check both.
• [ ] Ask a colleague to send a few awkward test enquiries and see where the templates fall short.
• [ ] Agree who takes over when a message turns into a refund request or a complaint.

A copyable prompt

Paste this into your AI tool, then add your own information at the bottom.

I run a small UK business and we are preparing for Christmas trading. Below I will paste our delivery cut-off times, our returns policy and our opening hours.

Using ONLY what I paste, please write:

1. A short FAQ covering delivery and returns, plus opening hours, in plain British English.
2. Five reply templates: "Where is my order?", "Will it arrive before Christmas?", "How do I return something?", "Are you open on [day]?", and a polite holding reply for anything we cannot answer straight away.

Rules:

• Do not invent facts, dates, times, prices or policies.
• If something is missing or unclear, write [OWNER TO FILL IN: what is missing] instead of guessing.
• Do not promise refunds, compensation or delivery dates.
• Keep the tone warm, plain and practical, with no jargon.
• At the end, list every gap you found so I can fill them in.

Here is my information: [paste your delivery cut-offs, returns policy and opening hours here]

Read the result as a customer would. If your returns wording is out of date, or you aren't sure what it should say, check with a solicitor before publishing it.

When a temp is still the right call

AI can't lift a box. If the pressure is physical, such as packing, stock handling or covering the till, you need a person. The same goes if your team is already stretched to the limit before the peak begins. Templates won't fix that.

You can also combine the two. You might take on one temp for the physical work and use AI for the writing, so your permanent staff aren't stuck in the inbox. If the phone is swamping you, the guide on whether an AI receptionist is worth it for a small business gives you a more honest picture than most sales pages.

If you'd like a hand with the set-up

At My AI Apprentice we run AI sessions for small businesses, working through tasks like these with your own delivery and returns information in front of us. If that sounds useful, you're welcome to get in touch. No pressure either way.