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2 August 2026 · Pricing and numbers

What AI automation actually costs a small business

Ask “how much does it cost” and most providers will answer “it depends”. Which is true — and useless at the same time. Below are real numbers: what things cost, how much time they save, and a simple calculation that tells you in five minutes whether any of it is even worth it for you.

Three costs you need to add up

When a business owner hears the setup price, they assume that is the whole cost. It is not. In reality there are three:

  1. Setup — a one-off amount. This is where providers differ the most.
  2. Running costs — AI model usage and any platform fees. For a small business this is usually less than you expect.
  3. Your time — a few hours at the start to explain how things work in your business. Nobody can do that part for you.

The third item is the one most often forgotten — and it is the one that decides whether the system will be useful or just an expensive ornament.

Real ranges on the Slovenian market

The numbers below are my prices and running-cost estimates from projects I work on. Other providers may differ, but the order of magnitude is similar.

SolutionSetupMonthlyWhat it actually takes over
AI agent on your website or WhatsAppfrom €990€5–25Answers recurring questions, takes bookings and enquiries outside working hours.
Automation of one processfrom €690€0–15Preparing quotes or documents, monthly reports, copying data between tools.
AI visibility (GEO/AEO)from €390€0A one-off job: llms.txt, schema, restructuring content for AI search engines.
Connected system of several flowsfrom €2,900€20–60Several automations, an agent and a dashboard in one place.
Why the monthly cost is so low A small provider has a few dozen to a few hundred conversations a month. AI model usage is measured in cents per conversation, not euros. It only gets expensive at high volumes — which for a salon or a tradesperson is a nice problem to have, not a realistic one.

What about the savings — how do you even estimate them

Savings are not a feeling, they are a difference in hours. A procedure that takes five minutes:

  1. Take one task you repeat. Not the most annoying one — the most frequent one.
  2. Measure how long it takes once. Do not guess: next time, look at the clock.
  3. Multiply by the number of repetitions per week.
  4. Multiply by what your hour is worth. If you do not know, use your hourly rate for clients.

Work out your payback

Enter your numbers. Nothing is sent anywhere — the calculation runs in your browser.

This calculator measures time. Some losses are not in hours

The calculation above applies to tasks you repeat — preparing quotes, tidying documents, reports, copying data between tools. But when the current state costs you not hours but lost enquiries, the maths is different and usually more painful. For that part, use the missed calls calculator — it shows how much revenue slips past you each year because you could not pick up the phone or reply in time.

If the calculation shows payback in under six months, the decision is simple. Between six and twelve months, it is worth considering whether the task will still exist in a year. Over twelve months, leave it alone — unless the reason is something other than time (lost enquiries, for example).

The hidden cost nobody mentions

The most expensive part of automation is not the setup. The most expensive part is automating the wrong thing.

A typical example: a company automates a report nobody reads. Technically flawless, commercially pointless. That is why, in a process review, my first question is always what happens if that report does not exist for a month — and surprisingly often the answer is “probably nothing”.

Four things not worth automating Tasks you do less than three times a month. Procedures that change every time and have no rules. Decisions where a mistake is expensive and a human will review everything anyway. And anything you cannot describe step by step — if you cannot explain it to a colleague, a machine will not manage either.

Three real examples from small businesses

The salon that was losing calls

A hairdresser does not pick up the phone mid-haircut. With four missed calls a day, and every third one meaning a lost client, that is around 25 clients a month who called — and went elsewhere. At an average service of €35, we are talking a few hundred euros a month. An AI agent that takes the booking via message pays for itself in the first month.

The tradesman who writes quotes in the evening

Two hours a day after being out on jobs, four times a week. Eight hours a week writing quotes built from the same data he has already typed into his phone. Automating quote preparation from notes does not save all of that time — realistically about two thirds. The five hours a week he gets back are half a working day.

The accounting firm and monthly payment reminders

The same letter, a different name, a different amount, forty times a month. A classic case where the system drafts them and a human just reviews and sends. Saving three to four hours a month is not dramatic — what is dramatic is that the reminders actually get sent, because nobody keeps putting them off.

The pattern that repeats almost every time The biggest value is not in the hours saved, but in things actually happening — the reply goes out the same day, the quote leaves the house the next morning, the reminder lands on the due date. In small businesses, money is lost above all where something did not happen on time.

How to avoid a purchase you will regret

The calculator gives you an order of magnitude. If you want numbers for your case rather than the average, let’s go a step deeper.

Who’s writing this: Maruša Vrečar. I’ve written sales copy for more than twenty markets. Today I build AI systems that take over the work small businesses never have time for: writing quotes and service descriptions, answering customers even at 10 pm, taking bookings, organising and sorting documents, competitor and price analyses, finding potential customers, and monthly reports from data scattered across five tools.

And those are just a few examples — the list isn’t fixed. Book a free call, tell me what’s eating your time, and I’ll prepare a solution for you. The quote is non-binding and the call costs you nothing. Your problem = my challenge. 🙂

If you want to go deep straight away: in a process review for €290 I show you within three days what a system can take over — and what isn’t worth it. I deduct the review price from the project if you decide to go ahead.

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Fifteen minutes on a call. You tell me where your time is leaking — you get one concrete idea for your case, even if you decide not to work with me.

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