How much does AI implementation cost after the assessment?
Before comparing prices, describe the task: what goes in, what should come out and who checks it. Then separate the quote into building, connecting existing systems and ongoing work. The assessment fee is not an implementation price.
How to read published ranges
Websee’s 2026 guide lists a FAQ chatbot at EUR 1,200–3,500 upfront plus EUR 50–120 monthly; a custom solution at EUR 12,000–50,000+ plus EUR 500–2,500 monthly. These are provider examples, not a European average or ErgoStrat’s tariff.
Use examples to frame questions, rather than price your own task. Ask for written inclusions and the tax basis of the actual quote. Comparing totals alone will tell you little if one proposal includes an order-system connection and another only answers from a prepared list.
What are you buying?
Break the specification into work you can accept separately:
- Task and acceptance criterion: who supplies the input and what counts as an acceptable result.
- Data: who collects it, cleans it and authorises access.
- Integrations: which systems connect, which permissions are needed and who provides them.
- Checks: which real cases are tested, who accepts the result and when a person intervenes.
A draft reply approved by an employee has a different specification from a reply sent directly to a customer. Put the chosen arrangement in the quote. Do not leave the supplier and your team to assume different meanings for the same word, “chatbot”.
What continues after launch?
Request separate lines for model or API use, infrastructure, maintenance and changes. Establish which are fixed, which depend on usage and what happens above the agreed volume. A single monthly total without those conditions gives you too little to compare.
Record your team’s work too: checking output, updating source material, training colleagues and handling exceptions. Ask who watches failed runs, who holds access and how the solution is stopped when something goes wrong. Maintenance need not include new features or model retraining; ask for an explicit description.
A list of actual tasks, owners, included work and separately charged changes gives you a better basis for a decision.
What does the Map give you before a quote?
The AI Opportunity Map orders tasks by the hours they cost you today; for the first three it gives a proposed tool, requirements, an owner and a build-effort range in hours, without a build price. Once you choose a task, the implementation quote needs to specify the process, data, connections and acceptance conditions.
Assessment is a separate paid service. Its fee is not deducted from a later build, and it creates no obligation to commission one. Keep that purchase separate when comparing implementation proposals, so you can see the result you are paying for at each stage.
Questions
Does an integrated chatbot cost a fixed multiple of an FAQ chatbot?
No. The label does not set a ratio. Ask which connections, access permissions, checks and responsibilities the integration adds. Compare the same scope, without treating an example price range as a formula.
Do monthly costs end after the first year?
Check the contract. Do not assume that usage, hosting and maintenance become free after a particular period. Establish what continues, how to terminate it and how you receive data and access when changing supplier.
How can we limit cost without hiding part of the work?
Describe available data and access before the quote. Separate what the chosen task needs from future wishes. Ask for a price and acceptance criterion for the agreed scope, rather than a saving calculated from somebody else’s percentage.
Sources
Related reading
Next step
Find out which tasks are worth it in your business before asking for a price.
The AI Opportunity Map orders them by the hours they cost you today, so you know what deserves a quote.
or write to contact@ergostrat.com