AI Automation Specialist for Lead Qualification, CRM Routing and Multichannel Appointment Booking - Contract to Hire

We are looking for an experienced AI automation specialist to build a reusable AI-powered appointment management and CRM routing system for small and medium-sized businesses. The main priority of the project is appointment management. The system should allow customers to request, book, reschedule, cancel, confirm and receive reminders for appointments through a customer messaging channel and/or a website form/chat, while automatically updating a calendar and a CRM/database. The system should also include lead triage and basic lead qualification, but the appointment workflow is the priority for the first working version. This is not a generic chatbot project. We need a controlled business automation system where AI is used to understand customer messages, detect intent, extract structured data, identify the requested service or resource, and generate natural replies.