How much does AI automation cost for a small business?
Real, published UK prices for AI automation: discovery sessions, readiness audits, builds, AI agents, dashboards and retainers, plus what pushes the cost up or down.
Our published prices
We publish starting prices because we think you should know the number before a conversation starts. Anything bespoke is scoped and priced up front, never after the fact.
- Discovery session: £150 (45 minutes, fixed).
- AI readiness audit: from £3,200 (a half-day deep dive with every workflow scored on AI fit).
- Build & automation: from £800 (custom apps, internal tools and automations).
- Personalised outreach: from £1,200.
- Live data dashboards: from £2,400.
- AI agents: from £4,000.
- Strategy retainer: from £200 a month (ongoing counsel with a flexible pot of engineer time).
What makes AI automation cost more (or less)
- Number of tools involved: connecting two apps is simpler than stitching together six.
- Steps and decisions: a single AI step is cheaper than a multi-stage agent that takes actions.
- Edge cases: the more exceptions a process has, the more building and testing it needs.
- Data quality: messy or scattered data needs tidying before anything can be automated reliably.
- Risk: anything that sends money or messages to customers needs approval steps and more testing.
Don't forget running costs
Beyond the build, most automations have small monthly costs: the subscriptions for the tools involved and the usage charges of the AI models. A good plan estimates these up front so there are no surprises, and chooses tools that keep monthly costs predictable.
How to make sure it pays for itself
Start with the jobs that eat the most hours each week and price the saving before you spend. If an automation costs more than the time it frees up over a sensible period, it isn't worth building yet, and we'll tell you so.
Questions people also ask
Is there a cheap way to find out if AI will help my business?
Yes. Our discovery session is £150 for 45 minutes. You walk us through how the business runs and leave with a clear, prioritised next step, whether or not you work with us afterwards.
Do you charge by the hour?
Our packages are fixed-scope with published starting prices. Anything bespoke is scoped and priced before we start.
What's the difference between the discovery session and the readiness audit?
The discovery session (£150, 45 minutes) is a focused conversation and an expert read. The readiness audit (from £3,200) is a half-day deep dive that maps how the business runs, scores every workflow on AI fit and delivers a written, prioritised plan.