AI Automation Pricing UK
How Much Does AI Automation Cost in the UK? Real Pricing for Real Businesses
Everyone wants to know the price before they pick up the phone. Here is an honest breakdown of what AI automation actually costs for UK businesses, from simple chatbots to full workflow systems.
The Honest Answer: It Depends (But Here Are Real Numbers)
Let us get the frustrating bit out of the way first. There is no single price tag for AI automation. It depends on what you need, how many systems are involved, and how much customisation is required.
But that does not mean you should be left guessing. We have worked on hundreds of AI automation projects for UK businesses, and we believe you deserve real numbers before you commit to anything. So here they are.
The ranges below are based on typical projects we deliver. Your actual quote may differ depending on your specific requirements, but these figures give you a genuine starting point. No fluff, no "contact us for pricing" runaround.
Transparency matters because this is your money. You should know what you are getting into before you pick up the phone.
AI Chatbot Costs
Chatbots are one of the most popular starting points for businesses exploring AI. They handle customer questions around the clock, freeing your team to focus on more complex work.
Here is what you can expect to pay:
Simple FAQ chatbot: £2,000 to £5,000. This covers a bot that answers common questions from a knowledge base. It works well for businesses that get the same 20 or 30 questions repeatedly.
Conversational chatbot with integrations: £5,000 to £10,000. This type connects to your existing systems, like your website booking form or email platform. It can handle more natural conversations and guide customers through simple processes.
Advanced chatbot with CRM and booking integration: £8,000 to £15,000. A fully integrated chatbot that connects to your CRM, booking system, and other business tools. It can qualify leads, book appointments, and update customer records automatically.
Ongoing costs: Hosting and API usage typically runs between £50 and £200 per month, depending on volume.
If you want to see how chatbots fit into a broader support strategy, take a look at our customer support automation page.
AI Voice Agent Costs
Voice agents answer your phone, take messages, book appointments, and route calls. They are ideal for businesses that miss calls because the team is busy, or for providing out-of-hours cover.
Basic voice agent (greetings and routing): £3,000 to £6,000. Answers calls, provides basic information, and routes callers to the right person or department.
Full AI receptionist (booking, enquiries, messages): £5,000 to £12,000. Handles the full receptionist role. It can answer questions about your services, book appointments directly into your calendar, take detailed messages, and send follow-up confirmations.
Ongoing costs: Call minutes and API usage typically cost between £100 and £300 per month, depending on call volume.
We have built voice agents for businesses across the UK. You can learn more on our AI phone assistants page.
Workflow Automation Costs
Workflow automation connects your systems and removes manual steps from your processes. Instead of copying data between spreadsheets or chasing approvals by email, the system handles it automatically.
Single process automation (for example, invoice processing): £3,000 to £7,000. Takes one repetitive process and automates it end to end. Common examples include invoice processing, order confirmations, and employee onboarding tasks.
Multi-system integration (CRM plus accounting plus email): £8,000 to £20,000. Connects two or more business systems so data flows between them without manual intervention. When a new lead comes in, your CRM updates, your team gets notified, and a welcome email goes out, all automatically.
Enterprise workflow overhaul: £15,000 to £40,000 or more. A comprehensive review and automation of multiple business processes. This is for businesses ready to fundamentally change how they operate, removing manual bottlenecks across departments.
See examples of what is possible on our workflow automation page.
Lead Generation and Sales Automation Costs
These systems capture leads from your website, social media, and other channels, then nurture them through your sales process without your team having to chase every single one manually.
Lead capture automation: £3,000 to £8,000. Automatically captures leads from forms, chatbots, and landing pages. Qualifies them based on your criteria and routes them to the right salesperson with all the relevant context.
Full sales funnel automation: £8,000 to £18,000. Covers the entire journey from first contact to closed deal. Includes automated follow-up sequences, lead scoring, meeting scheduling, and pipeline reporting. Your team focuses on conversations that matter instead of admin.
Find out more about how we help businesses grow on our sales and lead automation page.
What Affects the Price?
The ranges above give you a solid starting point. But several factors push a project towards the higher or lower end of those ranges.
Complexity of the integration. Connecting to a modern cloud-based CRM is straightforward. Connecting to a legacy system that was built fifteen years ago takes more work.
Number of systems being connected. Each additional system adds development and testing time. A chatbot on its own is simpler than a chatbot connected to your CRM, email platform, and booking system.
Volume of interactions expected. A system handling 100 conversations a month needs less infrastructure than one handling 10,000. Higher volumes may require more robust hosting and monitoring.
Level of customisation required. Off-the-shelf solutions with minor adjustments cost less than fully bespoke builds. We always recommend starting simple and adding complexity as you learn what works.
Ongoing support and maintenance. AI systems need monitoring and occasional updates. We offer support packages, but you should factor this into your budget from the start.
The Real Question: What Does It Cost You NOT to Automate?
Before you focus too much on what automation costs, consider what you are already spending by doing things manually.
Start by calculating the hours your team spends on repetitive tasks each week. Data entry, answering the same questions, copying information between systems, chasing invoices, following up with leads. Add it up honestly.
Now multiply those hours by the hourly cost of your staff time. Include salary, national insurance, pension contributions, and overheads. The number is usually higher than people expect.
Then add the opportunities you are missing. Every unanswered phone call is a potential customer gone to a competitor. Every slow follow-up is a lead that has gone cold. Every manual error is time spent fixing something that should not have gone wrong in the first place.
Most businesses we work with see a return on their investment within three to six months. Some see it even sooner, particularly with chatbots and voice agents that start handling enquiries from day one.
Take a look at our automation services to see how we help businesses save time and money.
How We Handle Pricing at Original Objective
We know that pricing in the tech industry can feel like a dark art. Vague estimates, scope creep, and surprise invoices are far too common. We do things differently.
Fixed quotes before any work starts. We scope your project thoroughly and give you a fixed price. If we underestimate the work, that is on us, not you.
No hidden fees or surprise invoices. The price we quote is the price you pay. We include everything you need to get up and running.
We recommend the simplest solution that solves the problem. We are not interested in over-engineering your project to inflate the bill. If a simple chatbot will do the job, we will tell you that, even if you came to us asking for something more complex.
We will tell you honestly if automation is not right for your situation. Not every problem needs an AI solution. If we think your money would be better spent elsewhere, we will say so. We would rather build a relationship based on trust than take on a project that will not deliver results.
Ready to find out what AI automation would cost for your business? Get in touch for a free quote. We will have a straightforward conversation about your needs, give you honest numbers, and let you decide without any pressure.
The Honest Answer: It Depends (But Here Are Real Numbers)
Let us get the frustrating bit out of the way first. There is no single price tag for AI automation. It depends on what you need, how many systems are involved, and how much customisation is required.
But that does not mean you should be left guessing. We have worked on hundreds of AI automation projects for UK businesses, and we believe you deserve real numbers before you commit to anything. So here they are.
The ranges below are based on typical projects we deliver. Your actual quote may differ depending on your specific requirements, but these figures give you a genuine starting point. No fluff, no "contact us for pricing" runaround.
Transparency matters because this is your money. You should know what you are getting into before you pick up the phone.
AI Chatbot Costs
Chatbots are one of the most popular starting points for businesses exploring AI. They handle customer questions around the clock, freeing your team to focus on more complex work.
Here is what you can expect to pay:
Simple FAQ chatbot: £2,000 to £5,000. This covers a bot that answers common questions from a knowledge base. It works well for businesses that get the same 20 or 30 questions repeatedly.
Conversational chatbot with integrations: £5,000 to £10,000. This type connects to your existing systems, like your website booking form or email platform. It can handle more natural conversations and guide customers through simple processes.
Advanced chatbot with CRM and booking integration: £8,000 to £15,000. A fully integrated chatbot that connects to your CRM, booking system, and other business tools. It can qualify leads, book appointments, and update customer records automatically.
Ongoing costs: Hosting and API usage typically runs between £50 and £200 per month, depending on volume.
If you want to see how chatbots fit into a broader support strategy, take a look at our customer support automation page.
AI Voice Agent Costs
Voice agents answer your phone, take messages, book appointments, and route calls. They are ideal for businesses that miss calls because the team is busy, or for providing out-of-hours cover.
Basic voice agent (greetings and routing): £3,000 to £6,000. Answers calls, provides basic information, and routes callers to the right person or department.
Full AI receptionist (booking, enquiries, messages): £5,000 to £12,000. Handles the full receptionist role. It can answer questions about your services, book appointments directly into your calendar, take detailed messages, and send follow-up confirmations.
Ongoing costs: Call minutes and API usage typically cost between £100 and £300 per month, depending on call volume.
We have built voice agents for businesses across the UK. You can learn more on our AI phone assistants page.
Workflow Automation Costs
Workflow automation connects your systems and removes manual steps from your processes. Instead of copying data between spreadsheets or chasing approvals by email, the system handles it automatically.
Single process automation (for example, invoice processing): £3,000 to £7,000. Takes one repetitive process and automates it end to end. Common examples include invoice processing, order confirmations, and employee onboarding tasks.
Multi-system integration (CRM plus accounting plus email): £8,000 to £20,000. Connects two or more business systems so data flows between them without manual intervention. When a new lead comes in, your CRM updates, your team gets notified, and a welcome email goes out, all automatically.
Enterprise workflow overhaul: £15,000 to £40,000 or more. A comprehensive review and automation of multiple business processes. This is for businesses ready to fundamentally change how they operate, removing manual bottlenecks across departments.
See examples of what is possible on our workflow automation page.
Lead Generation and Sales Automation Costs
These systems capture leads from your website, social media, and other channels, then nurture them through your sales process without your team having to chase every single one manually.
Lead capture automation: £3,000 to £8,000. Automatically captures leads from forms, chatbots, and landing pages. Qualifies them based on your criteria and routes them to the right salesperson with all the relevant context.
Full sales funnel automation: £8,000 to £18,000. Covers the entire journey from first contact to closed deal. Includes automated follow-up sequences, lead scoring, meeting scheduling, and pipeline reporting. Your team focuses on conversations that matter instead of admin.
Find out more about how we help businesses grow on our sales and lead automation page.
What Affects the Price?
The ranges above give you a solid starting point. But several factors push a project towards the higher or lower end of those ranges.
Complexity of the integration. Connecting to a modern cloud-based CRM is straightforward. Connecting to a legacy system that was built fifteen years ago takes more work.
Number of systems being connected. Each additional system adds development and testing time. A chatbot on its own is simpler than a chatbot connected to your CRM, email platform, and booking system.
Volume of interactions expected. A system handling 100 conversations a month needs less infrastructure than one handling 10,000. Higher volumes may require more robust hosting and monitoring.
Level of customisation required. Off-the-shelf solutions with minor adjustments cost less than fully bespoke builds. We always recommend starting simple and adding complexity as you learn what works.
Ongoing support and maintenance. AI systems need monitoring and occasional updates. We offer support packages, but you should factor this into your budget from the start.
The Real Question: What Does It Cost You NOT to Automate?
Before you focus too much on what automation costs, consider what you are already spending by doing things manually.
Start by calculating the hours your team spends on repetitive tasks each week. Data entry, answering the same questions, copying information between systems, chasing invoices, following up with leads. Add it up honestly.
Now multiply those hours by the hourly cost of your staff time. Include salary, national insurance, pension contributions, and overheads. The number is usually higher than people expect.
Then add the opportunities you are missing. Every unanswered phone call is a potential customer gone to a competitor. Every slow follow-up is a lead that has gone cold. Every manual error is time spent fixing something that should not have gone wrong in the first place.
Most businesses we work with see a return on their investment within three to six months. Some see it even sooner, particularly with chatbots and voice agents that start handling enquiries from day one.
Take a look at our automation services to see how we help businesses save time and money.
How We Handle Pricing at Original Objective
We know that pricing in the tech industry can feel like a dark art. Vague estimates, scope creep, and surprise invoices are far too common. We do things differently.
Fixed quotes before any work starts. We scope your project thoroughly and give you a fixed price. If we underestimate the work, that is on us, not you.
No hidden fees or surprise invoices. The price we quote is the price you pay. We include everything you need to get up and running.
We recommend the simplest solution that solves the problem. We are not interested in over-engineering your project to inflate the bill. If a simple chatbot will do the job, we will tell you that, even if you came to us asking for something more complex.
We will tell you honestly if automation is not right for your situation. Not every problem needs an AI solution. If we think your money would be better spent elsewhere, we will say so. We would rather build a relationship based on trust than take on a project that will not deliver results.
Ready to find out what AI automation would cost for your business? Get in touch for a free quote. We will have a straightforward conversation about your needs, give you honest numbers, and let you decide without any pressure.
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