How much do AI automation agencies charge? A UAE guide
How AI automation agencies in the UAE price their work, what pushes a quote up, the red flags to watch for, and how to compare two proposals fairly.
Devvion · Published
You have three proposals on your desk from AI automation agencies in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. One is a fixed project, one is a monthly retainer, one charges per automation. None of them uses the same words for the same thing, and you can't tell which one is cheap and which one is just vague.
This guide won't give you a market price range. Any number you read online is a sales page or a guess. What we can give you is how agencies actually build their prices, what makes a quote go up, and how to put two proposals side by side.
The price of a project only makes sense next to the price of doing nothing
Before you read any quote, put a number on the work you want gone. Count the people who touch the process, the hours each spends on it every week, and what an hour of their time costs you with salary, benefits and visas included.
That figure is your ceiling. A proposal that costs more than a year of the problem needs a very good reason. A proposal that costs much less, but never says how it will measure the hours saved, is not cheap. It's unpriced risk.
Four ways agencies price, and what each one rewards
Most AI automation agencies use one of four models, or a mix.
| Model | How it works | Good for | Watch for | |---|---|---|---| | Assessment or discovery | A fixed fee for a short, defined study of your processes | Knowing what to build before you commit | A report with no costed list of opportunities | | Fixed project | One price for a defined scope | A single, well-understood workflow | Change requests that cost more than the project | | Monthly retainer | A monthly fee for a team over a period | Several connected processes that change as you learn | Hours billed with no output tied to them | | Per automation | A price for each workflow or bot | Small, isolated tasks | Many small bots nobody owns or maintains |
None of these is wrong. The question is whether the model matches the work. A single invoice flow between one inbox and one ERP suits a fixed project. Rebuilding how orders, invoices and approvals move across four systems does not, because you will learn things in week three that change week six.
What actually drives the cost
When two agencies quote very different numbers for what sounds like the same job, the gap usually comes from one of these.
Number of systems. Connecting email to a spreadsheet is a different job from connecting your ERP, CRM, bank portal and the UAE e-invoicing provider. Each system adds access, testing and failure cases.
Integrations without good APIs. Some older ERPs and local platforms have no clean way in. The agency either builds a workaround or works through exports, and both take longer.
Data quality. If customer codes differ between systems, or half the supplier records are duplicates, someone has to clean that first. Good agencies find this in discovery. Others find it in month two and send a change request.
AI versus rules. Most of a process follows rules you can write down. Those steps are cheaper to build and easier to test. AI agents belong on the judgment calls that remain, like reading an unusual request or a scanned invoice. A quote that puts AI on every step costs more to build and more to run.
Arabic support. Reading Arabic documents, handling right-to-left layouts and testing prompts in both languages is real work. If a quote doesn't mention it and your documents are in Arabic, it's missing.
Change management. Software that nobody uses saves nothing. Training, documentation and a named owner inside your team take time, and a serious quote includes them.
Red flags in a proposal
- A savings figure before anyone has looked at your process.
- No mention of who owns the code, the prompts and the accounts at the end.
- AI on every step, with no rules-based layer underneath.
- Hourly billing with no deliverables tied to the hours.
- A tool licence bundled in that you would have to keep paying for if you leave.
- No plan for measuring hours before and after.
How to compare two quotes fairly
Put each proposal through the same five questions:
- What exactly is live at the end, in my systems, used by my team?
- How will the hours saved be measured, and by whom?
- What happens when the scope changes, and what does that cost?
- Who owns the code, data and logins when the work ends?
- What does it cost to run each month after the build, including AI usage?
Write the answers in a table. The cheaper quote often covers less.
The fixed flow: buy in steps, not in one big bet
Name the process to Short paid assessment to One automation live to Measure the hours to Expand or stop
- Name the process
- Short paid assessment
- One automation live
- Measure the hours
- Expand or stop
The safest way to buy automation is to make each step earn the next. Start with a short paid study of the process. Build one automation and measure it on your own data. Only then decide whether to expand. Any agency confident in its work should be happy to be bought this way.
What to do this week without us
- Pick one process that repeats every week and annoys everyone. Write down each step and who does it.
- Count the hours for one week. Ask people to note them honestly, not to impress.
- Put the hours in the calculator above and note the yearly figure.
- List every system the process touches and whether it has an API or only exports.
- Send that one page to every agency you're talking to.
When to call us
Call Devvion when the process crosses several systems, involves Arabic documents, or needs a person inside your team to make it stick. We offer two services: business consulting to assess, map and mature the process, and forward-deployed engineering to automate, optimise and run it. Forward-deployed means our engineer works inside your business, not from a ticket queue. The people you meet stay on your work from the first day to the last.
We don't publish prices. The two-week assessment is a fixed fee, shared on a first call, and credited in full if you continue. Consulting engagements run 4 to 12 weeks and engineering engagements 6 to 16, each with an optional retainer after, and we take on a handful of clients at a time. If your problem looks like one of our use cases, that's where we start.
FAQ
How much does Devvion charge?
Devvion shares figures on a first call, once we know the size of the operation. The assessment is a fixed fee for a two-week scope, credited in full if you continue. Engagements then run for a set number of weeks, with no hourly timesheets.
Is a retainer better than a fixed project?
Devvion's view is that it depends on how many systems the work touches. One well-defined workflow suits a fixed project. Several connected processes suit a monthly model, because what you learn early changes what you build later. Either way, tie the money to something live and measured.
Why do AI automation quotes vary so much?
Devvion sees the gap come mostly from scope that isn't written down: the number of systems, data quality, Arabic documents, and whether training is included. Ask each agency to list these explicitly. Two quotes that look far apart often cover very different work.
Should I pay for a discovery or assessment?
Devvion recommends a short paid assessment before any large build, from us or anyone else. It puts a number on the problem and ranks what to fix first. A free discovery is usually a sales meeting; a paid one should leave you a report you own.
Do AI automation agencies in the UAE handle e-invoicing?
Devvion connects your ERP to your accredited e-invoicing provider; we are not a provider ourselves. When comparing agencies, check whether they plan that connection explicitly and how they handle rejected invoices, because that integration often drives cost more than the AI does.