Mach Lilies
How much does AI automation cost for a UK small business?
Most companies selling AI automation will not give you a price until you have sat through a sales call. We think that is backwards. So here are the real numbers, up front — including our own.
For a UK small business in 2026, AI automation costs anywhere from £16 a month to more than £20,000, depending on who does the work. Here is the short version. The rest of this guide explains each route — and, just as important, when to keep your money.
Typical AI automation costs for a UK small business (2026):
- Do it yourself: a ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot subscription costs £16–£25 per person per month.
- Off-the-shelf tools: most cost £20–£150 per month, plus your own time to set up and look after.
- Done for you: at Mach Lilies, your first AI helper costs from £3,500 to set up (fixed), then from £600 per month to run — about £10,700 in year one, about £7,200 a year after that.
- Bespoke agency builds: £20,000 upwards. Most small businesses never need this.
What does a done-for-you AI helper cost?
Your first AI helper from Mach Lilies costs from £3,500 to set up and from £600 per month to run. That adds up to about £10,700 in the first year, then about £7,200 a year after that. The setup price is fixed and agreed in writing before any work starts.
Setup covers one helper doing one well-defined job, with up to two systems connected — for example, your email and your client files. We build it, test it with you until you trust it, and switch it on in your business, usually within two to three weeks.
The monthly fee covers everything after that. We watch every run, fix anything that breaks, and improve the helper as your process changes. Software running costs are included up to a cap we state in your quote, and you get a short weekly summary of what your helper did. There is no long contract — cancel with one month's notice, and the helper and its documentation stay yours.
The full breakdown, including exactly what "from" means, is on our pricing page.
For scale: a part-time admin hire costs around £12,000–£15,000 a year, before recruitment and management time. We are not suggesting you replace anyone — most clients spend the freed-up hours on work that earns fees. But it is a fair benchmark for what eight-plus hours a week of routine work already costs you.
What makes the price go up?
Three things raise the setup quote: how many systems the helper must connect to, how many jobs you want it to do, and how unusual the work is. £3,500 covers one job with up to two connections. Each extra system or job adds to the fixed quote, which you get in writing first.
More systems means more connections to build and test. Email plus a folder of client files is the simple case. Email plus Xero, a practice system and a tracking spreadsheet is more work, so the quote rises.
More jobs works the same way. A helper that chases documents is one job. Add sorting the inbox and preparing a weekly report, and you are really buying three helpers.
Unusual complexity is the third driver — scanned paperwork in odd formats, decisions that need careful rules, or approvals that involve several people. None of that is a problem. It just takes longer to build and test, so it costs more.
Whatever the quote, it is fixed, it is in writing, and it does not change once work starts. No day rates. No surprise invoices.
Can I just use ChatGPT or Copilot instead?
Often, yes — and you should try that first. ChatGPT costs about £16 per person per month; Microsoft Copilot about £19–£25. If your problem is drafting letters, summarising documents or getting quick answers, a subscription is all you need. The paid tools are genuinely useful for that.
The difference is who does the work. A subscription gives you a clever tool, but someone still has to sit down and use it, every time. An AI helper does a whole job on its own — reads the email, notices the missing bank statement, sends a polite chase, files the reply — and only asks a person when judgement is needed. Our guide to what an AI agent is explains the difference properly.
Off-the-shelf automation tools sit in the middle, usually £20–£150 per month. They can work well when the job is simple and someone in your team genuinely enjoys setting things up. Be honest about whose evenings will go on looking after it, though — that time is a cost too.
| Route | Typical cost | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT or Copilot subscription | £16–£25 per person per month | One person wants help drafting, summarising and answering questions |
| Off-the-shelf tool | £20–£150 per month, plus your time | The job is simple and someone in-house enjoys setting things up |
| Done-for-you helper (us) | From £3,500 setup, then from £600 per month | A repetitive job eats hours across the team and nobody has time to build anything |
| Bespoke agency build | £20,000 and up | Larger firms with complex systems and their own IT team |
Not sure which jobs are even worth automating? Our guide to how AI can help your small business walks through the usual suspects — chasing documents, sorting email, preparing reports.
How do I know if it will pay for itself?
Use our rule of thumb: if a helper saves around eight staff-hours a week, it pays for itself. Below that, think hard. Count the hours honestly — time the job for a week or two rather than guessing, and include everyone who touches it, not just one person. The maths holds in any trade — see who we help for how the same helper earns its keep in ten different businesses.
Here is the working. Eight hours a week is about 400 hours a year. If that time costs you £18 an hour — pay plus pension, tax and cover — that is roughly £7,200 a year, which matches what a helper costs to run. Save more than eight hours and you are ahead every year.
Year one also includes the £3,500 setup fee, so the biggest jobs pay back fastest. Take a practice where someone spends 11 hours a week chasing clients for records. At £18 an hour that is about £10,300 a year in staff time — close to the whole first-year cost, before you count deadline-week overtime or the fee-earning work those hours could do instead.
When is AI automation not worth the money?
Quite often — and anyone selling it should say so. If the job saves fewer than about four hours a week, is a one-off, or belongs to a process you are about to change, do not buy automation. And if £3,500 would strain your cash flow, wait. The tools will still be here.
Too few hours saved. A job that takes two or three hours a week costs you £2,000–£3,000 a year in staff time. That does not cover £7,200 a year of running costs, let alone setup. Use a £16-a-month subscription and a good checklist instead.
A one-off task. Clearing a backlog once — scanning old files, tidying a contact list — is temp work or a fixed one-off project, not a monthly system. Do not pay every month for a job that ends.
A process about to change. New software arriving in the autumn, a merger, a role being rethought — wait. Automate after the dust settles, or you will pay to automate the old way of working.
Cash-flow reality. The setup fee plus a few months of running costs should be money you can spare for six months while the savings build up. If it is not, wait. The technology will still be here next year, and it will be better and cheaper.
We turn work away for all four of these reasons, and we say so in the first 20-minute chat. A helper that never earns its keep is bad for you — and, honestly, worse for us, because our business runs on being recommended.
Questions owners ask about cost
How much does AI automation cost for a UK small business?
It depends who does the work. Doing it yourself with ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot costs £16–£25 per person per month. A done-for-you AI helper from Mach Lilies costs from £3,500 to set up, then from £600 per month — about £10,700 in year one and about £7,200 a year after that.
Are there any hidden costs?
No. The setup price is fixed and agreed in writing before work starts, and the monthly fee covers monitoring, fixes, improvements and software running costs up to a stated cap. There are no day rates and no surprise invoices. If you ask for something extra, you get a written quote first.
How long does an AI helper take to pay for itself?
As a rule of thumb, a helper pays for itself when it saves around eight staff-hours a week. Eight hours a week is about 400 hours a year — roughly £7,200 of staff time at £18 an hour, which covers the yearly running cost. Bigger jobs also cover the setup fee within the first year.
Is it cheaper to hire a part-time admin instead?
Usually not. A part-time admin hire costs around £12,000–£15,000 a year, plus recruitment and management time. A helper costs about £10,700 in its first year and about £7,200 a year after that, works every day including deadline week, and keeps a log of everything it does.
What if I cannot afford the done-for-you route yet?
Start smaller. A £16-per-month ChatGPT subscription, used well, beats an expensive system you cannot comfortably pay for. Learn what the tools can do, and come back to done-for-you automation when one repetitive job is clearly costing you eight or more staff-hours every week.