AI agency or DIY with ChatGPT?
Plenty of AI can be done yourself, and sometimes you should. Here is an honest look at when do-it-yourself tools are enough, when an AI agency earns its fee, and how to tell the difference.
When DIY is enough
- Drafting emails, posts and ideas that a person checks before use
- Summarising documents that contain no personal data
- Simple automations between two popular tools, using no-code platforms
- Learning what AI can do before spending money
When an agency earns its fee
- Anything that talks to customers on your behalf, such as calls, chat or follow-up
- Anything touching customer data, where privacy has to be right
- Connections between several systems, where breakages cost money
- Jobs that need to run reliably every day without someone babysitting them
The hidden cost of DIY
DIY tools cost little to start, but the real cost is your time: learning, building, fixing it when a connected app changes, and noticing when it has quietly stopped working. For a busy owner, that time is often worth more than the fee.
What to expect from a good AI agency
- A clear recommendation, including when not to use AI
- A fixed price agreed before work starts
- Plain-English documentation of what was built
- You own what is built, with no lock-in
- Someone to call when something needs changing
That is how we work at our AI agency: fixed prices from £995, plain English, and a person always in control.
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