AI automation agency for small businesses — run by the person who builds it.
We find the busywork in your business — the invoices, the reconciliation, the repeat support questions, the Friday report — and automate it end-to-end. Fixed written quote after a free 30-minute call. Most automations are live in 4-8 weeks, and you own everything we build.
Mark Austen, Founder — 18 years shipping software, 50+ AI projects, SMBs across 14 countries
What an AI automation agency actually does
Three very different things get sold under the AI label. Knowing which one you are buying saves a bad quarter.
A chatbot vendor
You get a widget that answers questions. Useful, but it stops at the conversation. The invoice still gets typed in by hand, the report still gets built on Friday afternoon.
A dev shop
You bring a specification, they write code to it. If the spec misses the real bottleneck — and first specs usually do — you find out after the invoice.
An AI automation agency
Finds the busywork in how your business actually runs, automates it end-to-end, and maintains it after launch. The deliverable is hours back, not a feature list.
AI Makers is the third kind. The engagement starts with where your team’s hours actually go, not with a product demo — and it ends with an automation running in production, maintained, that you own. The custom AI development page covers the full service; this page is the automation-specific version.
What we automate
The recurring shapes across shipped projects. Typical automation projects run 8K-42K fixed price and go live in 4-8 weeks.
Invoice processing
Invoices arrive by email, get read, coded, matched and entered into your accounting system. Exceptions go to a human, everything else just flows.
Bank reconciliation
Transactions matched to invoices and entries automatically, with a short exception list instead of a monthly reconciliation slog.
Customer support
AI that answers the repeat questions on email, web chat and WhatsApp, takes action in your systems, and hands the hard cases to your team with full context.
Reporting
The numbers your team compiles by hand every week — pulled, assembled and delivered automatically. Same report, zero Friday afternoons.
Data entry
Orders, forms, documents and emails read and entered into your CRM, ERP or database. The retyping between systems stops.
WhatsApp workflows
Bookings, quotes, order updates and follow-ups handled on the channel your customers already use — connected to your real systems, not a standalone bot.
Not sure where your project lands in that range? The cost estimator gives you a realistic number in 30 seconds. Back-office work specifically is covered on the AI for operations page.
How the engagement works
Four steps from first contact to an automation running in your business. No retainer before anything is built, no procurement theatre.
Free discovery call
30 minutes. Where the manual hours go, which automation pays back fastest, whether the project makes sense at all.
Written fixed-price quote
A one-page scope of exactly what gets automated, with a fixed price. Usually within a few days. Sit on it as long as you like.
Build
Most automations are live in 4-8 weeks, with working software demos along the way — you steer while it is being built.
30 days post-launch support
Included. We watch it run in the real world and fix what surfaces. After that, an optional managed plan keeps it maintained and improving.
The founder-led difference
Most agencies put a sales layer between you and the people doing the work. Here there is no layer.
The person you talk to on the discovery call is the person who scopes your automation, builds it, and answers for it after launch. I’m Mark Austen — 18 years shipping software, 50+ AI projects delivered, working with small and mid-sized businesses across 14 countries.
That structure has practical consequences. Nothing gets lost between a salesperson’s promise and a developer’s ticket. Scope conversations happen with someone who knows what the change actually costs. And when something needs fixing, you message the builder directly — not a support queue.
Weighing an agency against hiring your own AI developer? The trade-off is broken down honestly in AI agency vs in-house hire.
How to choose an AI automation agency
Five things to check before you sign with anyone — including us. Any agency worth hiring passes all five without flinching.
They ask about your workflows before they pitch tools
A good agency wants to know where the hours go in your business. If the first call is a tool demo, they are selling a product, not solving your problem.
You meet the person who will build it
Ask who writes the code. If the answer is a team you will meet after signing, expect your project to be explained to the builders second-hand — and built second-hand.
Fixed written quotes, not open-ended retainers
Automation projects have a definable scope, so they can carry a fixed price. Agencies that only sell monthly retainers before anything is built are billing for time, not outcomes.
You own what gets built
Code, prompts, integrations, accounts — in your name at handover. If leaving the agency means losing the automation, you are renting, not buying.
They can say no
Some processes are not worth automating yet. An agency that tells you "spreadsheet plus a checklist covers this" on the first call is the one to trust with the projects that are worth it.
Recent projects, real clients
AI-accelerated mobile & web apps — 40% faster development, 30% cost savings.
Warehouse management across 3 islands — 99.9% inventory accuracy.
Full booking platform with AI tour content and a customer chatbot.
AI automation agency FAQ
How much does an AI automation agency cost?+
For a typical small-business automation project — one workflow automated end-to-end, connected to your existing systems — expect 8K to 42K, fixed and quoted in writing before work starts. Simpler single-channel builds sit at the low end, multi-system automations at the top. The cost estimator on this site gives you a realistic range for your specific project in about 30 seconds.
Should we hire an agency or build in-house?+
For most small businesses the honest answer is agency, at least for the first project. An in-house AI hire costs a full salary before anything ships, and good ones are hard to hire and harder to keep. An agency gets you a working automation in weeks for a fixed price — and because you own the code, you can take it in-house later if the volume justifies a hire. There is a full breakdown of the trade-off on the blog.
How long until an automation pays for itself?+
Do the arithmetic before you sign anything: hours the task takes per week, times loaded hourly cost, times 52. A back-office task eating 15 hours a week at a modest hourly cost is roughly 20-30K a year — so a project in the 8K-42K band typically pays back inside 6 to 18 months, then keeps paying. If the arithmetic does not work, I will tell you on the discovery call.
Do you work with companies our size?+
Small businesses are the deliberate focus, not the fallback. Most clients are 10-500 person companies — teams big enough to have real busywork and small enough that nobody has time for a six-month IT project. Founder-led means no minimum retainer and no enterprise procurement theatre.
What happens if the automation breaks?+
The first 30 days after launch are covered — included in the fixed price, no extra invoice. After that, most clients take a monthly managed plan: monitoring, fixes and improvements as your business changes. If you would rather run it yourself, you can, because you own the code and the documentation. Either way you are never stuck.
Do we have to replace our current software?+
No — the whole point of automation is connecting the tools you already run. Your accounting system, CRM, inbox and WhatsApp stay where they are; the automation moves the work between them. Migrations are what we help you avoid, not what we sell.
Find out what your busywork is costing you
A free 30-minute discovery call: where your team’s hours go, which automation pays back fastest, and a written fixed-price quote if the project makes sense. If it doesn’t, you’ll hear that too.
Prefer email? Use the contact page — replies within 24 hours.