Search for an AI automation agency and you'll find hundreds of them. Some are excellent. Some will build you something clever that costs more to run each month than the hours it saves.

I build automations for clients, so I see both kinds of work. Here's what a good AI automation agency should build, the cost question most of them skip, and what I'd ask before signing anything.

What a good automation build looks like

The best automations are quiet. They run every day, nobody thinks about them, and they give someone their afternoons back. They usually sit on the jobs that repeat: moving leads, sending follow-ups, updating records and pulling reports together.

• Lead capture: new enquiries from forms, ads or email go straight into your CRM with the right tags.
• Follow-up: a personal first reply and reminders, so no lead waits days for an answer.
• Content workflows: AI drafts, a person edits, and the finished piece is scheduled without copying and pasting.
• Reporting: numbers from different tools land in one place every week.
• AI agents: research, sorting and drafting tasks handled by an assistant built for your business.

The running cost nobody quotes you

Here's the thing almost no agency mentions in the pitch. On Zapier, you pay by tasks, and the Zapier Help Center spells out what counts. A task is any successful action. If a workflow has two actions and runs ten times, that's 20 tasks. Once you hit your plan's limit, extra tasks are charged separately.

What doesn't count matters just as much. Triggers never use tasks, and neither do Filter or Paths steps, Formatter, Delay, Looping, Digest or Storage steps. Actions that error or halt aren't counted either. Zapier even notes that a trigger checking an app every two minutes completes over 20 thousand polls a month, and those are never charged.

Some features cost more. Each successful tool call through Zapier MCP counts as 2 tasks. Each lead routed through Zapier Lead Router counts as 5 tasks. AI by Zapier depends on the model tier you pick. And if you replay an entire run, every step that already succeeded counts again.

So a well-built automation filters early, before the paid steps run. A badly built one does the expensive work first and throws half of it away. Ask any agency to show you where the filters sit.

• Free on Zapier: triggers, filters, paths, formatter, delay and failed actions.
• Counted: every successful action, including steps inside a sub-Zap.
• Counted at a higher rate: MCP tool calls and Lead Router leads.

Questions to ask an AI automation agency

These are the questions I'd want answered before I paid anyone, including me.

1. Which tasks will this automate, and how many hours a week will it give back?
2. What will it cost to run each month on the platform you're using, not just to build?
3. Where do the filters sit, so the paid steps only run when they should?
4. Who owns the accounts, and can I see and edit every workflow?
5. What happens when something breaks, and who gets told?
6. Can you show me one workflow you built that's still running a year later?

Agency, freelancer or one senior builder

An agency gives you a team, which helps if you need a lot built quickly. The trade-off is that the person who sold you the project often isn't the person who builds it.

A freelancer from a gig site can be cheap and good, but you'll need to know exactly what you want. Most business owners don't, and that's fine. Working out what to automate is half the job.

I work as one senior builder who also knows marketing. I've reviewed more than 300 tools over the years, and I work in HubSpot, Make, Zapier and n8n. If you're weighing up doing it yourself, my piece on DIY automation or hiring an automation consultant walks through the choice.

How I build automations for clients

I start with the jobs, not the tools. We list what repeats, what's slow and what gets forgotten. Then I pick the platform that suits your stack and your budget, build the first workflow, and check it runs cleanly before adding the next one.

You own everything. The accounts are yours, the workflows are documented, and your team can see what each one does. You don't need to be technical: if you can use email, you can work with me. I build it, and you use the outputs.

My advice before you sign with an AI automation agency

Ask for a monthly running-cost estimate in writing, alongside the build price, and ask how it changes if your volume doubles. Then start with one workflow that saves the most hours, live within two weeks, before you agree to anything bigger. If an agency won't commit to a small first win, that tells you something.

When you're ready to compare options, my roundup of the best AI automation consultants for small business is a good place to start, and my work with me page explains how I can help.

Frequently asked questions

What does an AI automation agency do?

It connects the tools you already use and adds AI to repetitive jobs such as lead capture, follow-up, content workflows and reporting, using platforms like Make.com, Zapier and n8n.

How does Zapier charge for automations?

Zapier counts a task for each successful action. Triggers, filters, paths, formatter and delay steps and failed actions don't count, and extra tasks over your plan limit are charged separately.

Why do some automations cost so much to run?

Because the paid steps run before anything filters out the records that don't need them. Filtering early keeps task use down.

Should I hire an agency or a consultant for automation?

An agency suits large builds that need a team. A senior consultant suits small businesses that need someone to work out what to automate and then build it.

Does Lilach Bullock build automations?

Yes. Lilach Bullock builds Make.com, Zapier and n8n workflows, HubSpot automations and custom AI agents for small businesses, all over video and in English.