An AI automation agency wires the tools you already run into each other, so repetitive work happens without anyone retyping it. At Numinam, a first scoped build starts at €2,380 for four days of work, and further cost lines come back every month that a quote may never mention.
What you are actually buying
The word "agency" misleads here, because it suggests a team producing something you can look at: a website, a campaign, a brand. What gets delivered is a set of workflows: chains of steps running in the background on a handful of accounts, usually where nobody sees them.
A contact form creates a record in your CRM, sends the prospect a reply, alerts whoever covers that region, then schedules a follow-up seven days out. Four things a person used to do by hand, collapsed into one line in a system.
An automation agency works with the software you already run. It connects those tools to each other, and that scope has a consequence: if your CRM already frustrates you, automation will not fix it. It will move the same data around faster.
So ask for a quote that lists the workflows one by one, with what each one triggers. A quote promising "automation of your sales processes" without that list does not tell you what you are buying, and it gives you nothing to compare a second proposal against.
The price, line by line
A quote that comes as a single figure hides everything you will pay after delivery. The cost breaks down the same way every time: one line paid once, and three that come back every month.
| Line | When you pay | Range |
|---|---|---|
| The build | Once | €595 for a single-day flow · €2,380 for a four-day starter build · €7,140 for a twelve-day full build |
| Calls to AI models | Monthly | €50 to €500 |
| Hosting and orchestration | Monthly | €50 to €300 |
| Maintenance and adjustments | Monthly | €100 to €500 |
The bottom three lines come back every month, and they are the ones that move. Model calls are billed by usage, so a workflow handling thirty requests a day costs more than one handling three. Those recurring figures are broken down in the article on the cost of integrating AI. If your quote rolls everything into a single figure, ask for it split out, because what you want to know is which line grows on the day your business does.
The build itself is measured in working days, and the day rate is published at €595. When two quotes land far apart, ask each provider how many days they plan and on which workflows. That is what makes two quotes comparable.
What the agency will need from you
What derails an automation project is the business rule nobody ever wrote down.
Take an automated quote follow-up. Building the email takes an hour. But before it can go live, someone will ask you how many days to wait, how many attempts before stopping, and what happens when the client already replied by phone and the CRM never heard about it. Those are three decisions, and they are yours. An agency can suggest a sensible default, but it cannot decide on your behalf how you want to sell. Writing that rule down is one of the four things that have to be true before marketing automation returns anything.
Two other things will be asked of you, and it helps to know in advance: admin access to your tools, and someone reachable the same day for the length of the build. On a four-day project, an answer that takes a week costs more than the day it holds up.
One thing worth doing before the first meeting: write down, in a single sentence, the rule that applies in your most common case. If the sentence will not come, the process is not ready to be automated, and you would rather find that out before paying for four days of work.
Five questions to ask before you sign
- Whose name are the platform accounts in? If everything runs on the agency's account, you are renting a service. If it runs on yours, you keep the accounts, the workflows and the history the day you move to another provider.
- What happens when a workflow fails overnight? Ask who gets alerted, how, and how quickly somebody picks it back up. A chain that fails without warning for three days costs more than the manual step it replaced.
- What does a change cost after delivery? A day rate quoted upfront beats negotiating a new estimate every time something shifts. Your processes will change, which is usually a good sign.
- Can I see the workflow, or only its output? Ask for a screenshot or an export. Without that document, nobody else can pick up the work the day you switch agencies.
- If I stop tomorrow, what do I keep? A serious provider answers in one sentence. When the answer runs to five, ask for it in writing.
What automation will not fix
A process nobody can describe cannot be automated. If three people on your team give three different accounts of what happens after a quote is signed, the first job is to agree among yourselves, and that meeting is not a technical project.
Bad data stays bad. If half the email addresses in your client file are dead, automating your follow-ups sends messages to dead mailboxes faster.
Then there is the task that needs a judgement call every single time. A custom quote, a complaint to settle, a hiring decision: the mechanical part of those automates, the judgement stays with you. It is also where AI lead qualification agents stop being reliable.
Even a fully automated flow leaves a human share. At Coddy, the urban escape games I co-founded, booking, payment and instruction delivery all happen without anyone touching them, and roughly one booking in ten still needs a person to answer. So plan for someone to be reachable even after the flow goes live.
Key takeaways
- Insist on a quote split line by line: the build once, then every month the model calls, hosting and maintenance. A single lump sum hides the line that grows with your volume.
- Platform accounts belong in your name. That detail decides what you walk away with the day you change providers.
- Before the first meeting, write the business rule for your most common case in one sentence. If it will not come, the process is not ready.
- Ask what happens when a workflow fails overnight: who gets alerted, and how fast somebody restarts it.
- A useful first build is measured in working days: four for a scoped piece, around twelve for a full set.
To get a sense of scope before you request quotes, the AI automation page lists the standard builds with their duration and their price.
