What does AI automation cost for a small business?
Published Australian figures put typical builds in the low thousands to low tens of thousands with modest monthly running costs, and my experience matches: the right first automation is usually a four-figure project. The bigger truth is what changed: scope that once needed a team now fits a small business budget.
The longer answer
In practice.
What drives it
How many systems must be wired together, how messy their data is, how
exception-heavy the process is, and how much of the workflow needs human
approval steps designed in. Running costs are mostly the AI usage itself, which
for document-and-message workloads is genuinely cheap.
Where the money comes back
Hours: the report that took a Friday, the research that took an evening, the
retyping between systems. A single automated workflow that saves a few staff
hours weekly pays for a four-figure build inside months, and the arithmetic gets
shown to you before anything is built.
How to start without regret
One workflow, measured before and after, fixed quote, per
what to automate first.
Distrust anyone whose first proposal is a platform.
Same rabbit hole