How to Choose an AI Automation Agency (Questions to Ask)

Choosing an AI automation agency is mostly about what they refuse. Anyone can wrap a model in a chat box. Fewer will tell you the workflow is a bad fit, put the accounts in your name, and show you a log.

We are one of those agencies, so read this as the questions we expect, not as a neutral directory. The offer is AI automation.

Questions about the work

• What is the single workflow in the first release, in one paragraph?
• Which steps are rules, and which steps are a model?
• What does the system do when it is unsure?
• Who approves a message or a record change?
• What does a wrong output cost, in dollars or in a customer complaint?

If the answer to the first question is "we will discover that during the engagement", you are funding a workshop, not a build.

Questions about ownership

• Whose name is on the model account, the phone carrier, and the hosting?
• Can another developer read the code and the prompts in six months?
• What do you keep if you cancel?
• Will your content be used to train a public model?

"We host it for you so it is easier" can be fine for a month and a trap in a year. Easier is not the same as yours.

Questions about proof

Ask for a trace of a real run, including a failure. Ask what they measure. "Hours saved" without a before count is a story. Answered calls, bookings, and items a person had to correct are counts.

Ask what they will not automate. A good answer includes money movement, regulated advice, and anything they have not seen in your data. A bad answer is "the model is very capable".

Price shape

You want a fixed price for a defined pilot, then a monthly price if someone is still tuning it. A percentage of "value created" is unmeasurable and will become a fight. For phone projects, the cost guide shows the line items. The AI Receptionist plan starts at $600 per month after a 20% launch offer (regular starting price $750 per month), plus setup. Limited-time launch offer, final quote after free strategy call.

A reasonable process

A short call, a written scope, a pilot on past examples or after hours, then a decision to expand. If an agency needs a year and a platform rewrite before you see one workflow work, they are selling a platform. You asked for a chore to disappear.