AI agency
What an AI agency does, and how to choose one.
An AI agency builds AI into the work you already do: in your ERP, your CRM, your mailbox. Not another tool, but something that takes work off your hands. Below is what that involves, when you need one, and the seven questions that tell them apart.
What it is.
Three differences you notice as soon as you start.
An agency, not a software vendor
A software vendor sells you a package and you figure out how it fits your work. An AI agency starts with your work and builds around it. You notice the difference at the first exception: a package does not know it, an agency builds it in.
Usually three kinds of work
Finding out where AI pays off and where it does not. Building and connecting to the systems you have. And making sure your team actually uses it. Agencies mainly differ in which of those three they do well.
Not the same as an AI consultant
A consultant delivers advice and leaves. An agency also builds it and stays with it as long as it runs. If you only want to know where to start, advice is enough and cheaper.
Seven questions to choose one.
Ask these to us and to every other agency. Each question shows the answer you want to hear, so you can compare them yourself.
1. Who owns it if we stop?
You want to hear: you do, with documentation, your own subscription to the platform and your data exportable. If you hear "we will sort that out", ask further. This is the question that can cost the most money and is asked the least.
2. What does it cost, and when does it pay back?
You want an amount and a calculation up front: how many hours it takes now, what share goes away, what building costs. No day rate without an end. If someone cannot make that calculation, they do not know what they are going to build.
3. Where does it run and who can access our data?
You want to know in which country the servers are, which models are used and whether your data is used to train those models. With customer data that is not a detail but a GDPR question.
4. What happens when the agent makes a mistake?
You want to hear that by default it prepares a draft instead of sending or booking on its own, and that it is agreed up front what it may and may not do by itself. "That does not happen" is not an answer.
5. Who is actually going to build it?
You want to hear the name of the person doing it, not of the agency. Ask who your point of contact is and whether that stays the same person. Changing teams are the reason projects overrun.
6. Do you measure afterwards whether it was right?
You want to hear that the figures from before the build are recorded and compared after delivery. Without a baseline, every result is a story.
7. When do you advise against it?
You want to hear a concrete example of a time they said no. Anyone who has never advised against something sells whatever they happen to be able to build.
Want to see our answer to question two first? Make your own calculation in a few minutes.
When you need one.
And when your money is better spent on something else.
This is the moment
- You have work that comes back every week and takes time, and the rules live in someone’s head.
- You already have systems that do their job; things go wrong in the handover between them.
- Nobody inside can take this on, and hiring for a year is too heavy.
- You want to know what it delivers before you build, not after.
Not just yet
- You mainly want to experiment. Then start with a ChatGPT or Copilot subscription and see what your team does with it.
- Your processes change every quarter. Then you build something that does not grow along.
- Your data is not right. An agent on messy data makes mistakes faster, not fewer.
- You are looking for the lowest price. This field has cheap solutions that turn expensive.
Frequently asked questions.
What does an AI agency cost?
That depends on what you have built. With us, one working agent starts at € 750 one-off plus hosting from € 50 per month; an advisory project to decide what to build starts at € 1,000. Always ask for the calculation behind it, not just the amount. See what an AI agent costs.
What is the difference with an AI consultant?
A consultant thinks along and delivers advice; an agency also builds it and stays with it. If you first want to know where to start, AI discovery is enough.
Do you have a minimum size?
No. We work with SMEs from around ten people. Below that size it is often smarter to start with existing tools, and we will tell you so.
How long before something is running?
A first agent is live within two weeks of the intake, a full project takes two to four weeks. See the AI agent project.
Do you work with fixed people or with a network?
Erwin is always your fixed point of contact. Specialists from our network work on the parts they are good at. So you have one face and no changing team.
