# Who can build an AI agent for my business?

URL: https://yarigai.ai/guides/who-can-build-an-ai-agent
Author: Deniz Sancar, founder of Yarigai (https://denizsancar.com)
Publisher: Yarigai, a done-for-you AI agency in London, UK (https://yarigai.ai)
Published: 7 November 2026. Updated: 7 November 2026.

## Short answer
Five kinds of builder can make an AI agent for a business in 2026: a Fiverr or Upwork freelancer, a no-code automation shop, a build agency, an in-house hire, or you, with tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or n8n. On 7 November 2026 the top Fiverr listings for "AI agent" cost £127 to £3,051, UK agencies published first-agent starting prices of £2,500 to £8,000, and a UK AI engineer's median salary was £87,500.

Yarigai, which wrote this page, is a build agency.

## At a glance
| Route | What it costs (checked 7 November 2026) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Fiverr freelancer | £127 to £3,051 for the top 12 "AI agent" listings | Fiverr search |
| Upwork freelancer | $29 an hour average posted budget for web, mobile and software jobs | Snipework, 3,473 jobs |
| UK freelancer | £400 to £800 a day quoted | Augustova pricing page |
| No-code automation shop | One workflow from £750 (flowio) | Agency site |
| Build agency, first agent | From £2,500 (BRVO) to £8,000 (SpotDev) | Agency sites |
| In-house AI engineer | £87,500 median salary, £99,875 with employer National Insurance | ITJobsWatch, GOV.UK |
| Do it yourself | Claude Team $20 a seat a month; n8n Starter €20 a month; Zapier Pro $19.99 a month, all billed annually | Vendor pricing pages |

Augustova's prices exclude VAT, and the other agency and freelancer sources don't say whether theirs do. AI usage and hosting come on top of every route, and care plans on top of agency and shop prices.

## The five routes compared
The routes differ most in who keeps the agent working after launch and whose accounts it lives in.

| Route | Time to a first version | Who owns it | Who fixes it when it breaks | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fiverr or Upwork freelancer | Set in each gig or contract | Whoever holds the accounts; agree it in writing | The freelancer, if still available, or you | Nobody maintains it after delivery |
| No-code automation shop | Within 2 weeks for a basic automation (flowio) | Depends on whose platform account it runs in | The shop, on a care plan from £150 a month (flowio) | Platform fees that rise with volume |
| Build agency | 2 to 3 weeks for a first rollout (SpotDev) | Set by contract; Augustova puts code and accounts in the client's name from day one | The agency, on a care or managed plan | Paying for more build than the job needs |
| In-house hire | Recruitment first, then the build | You | Your employee | The system depends on one person |
| Do it yourself | Your own hours | You | You | Gaps in testing, security and approvals |

## Each route in detail, and what to ask
### A Fiverr or Upwork freelancer
Fiverr returned 21,000+ results for "AI agent" on 7 November 2026. The top 12 listings showed prices from £127 to £3,051, and Fiverr's budget filter for the search split gigs at £43, £78 and £227. On Upwork, posted budgets for web, mobile and software development jobs averaged $29 an hour in the week to 6 November 2026, across 3,473 jobs, according to Snipework. That figure measures what clients offered, not what freelancers earned, and it is not specific to AI work.

Ask a freelancer:
- Will it run in my accounts, under my logins, from the start?
- Will you hand over the workflow or code and a written guide to how it works?
- What does a fix cost when a model or tool changes in six months?
- Can I see an agent you built that is still running today?

### A no-code automation shop
Automation shops build agents and workflows on platforms such as n8n, Make or Zapier. flowio in Glasgow starts at £750 for a single workflow and says most basic automations go live within 2 weeks. The platform bill sits on top. Zapier's Pro plan is $19.99 a month billed annually for 750 tasks, and n8n's Starter cloud plan is €20 a month billed annually for 2,500 workflow executions.

Ask an automation shop:
- Which platform will it run on, and whose account is it?
- What will the platform cost at my volume next year?
- What does the care plan cover, and how fast do you respond? flowio, for example, promises a response to urgent problems within 1 hour during business hours.

### A build agency
A build agency writes the agent as software, connects it to your systems and can run it on a care plan. Published UK first-agent prices ran from £2,500 to £6,000 for BRVO's two-week sprint, £4,000 to £15,000 at Augustova and £8,000 at SpotDev. SpotDev says a first rollout is typically live in two to three weeks.

Ask a build agency:
- Is the price fixed, and is the monthly running cost on the quote?
- Who owns the code, the data and the accounts, and from what date?
- Is there a minimum term? BRVO's management fee has a 6-month minimum.
- What happens if it fails acceptance tests or goes live late?

The [best AI agencies in the UK](/guides/best-ai-agencies-uk) page compares 12 agencies by buyer type.

### An in-house hire
The UK median salary for an artificial intelligence engineer was £87,500 in the six months to 6 November 2026, with a 10th to 90th percentile range of £53,750 to £115,000, across 709 permanent job ads tracked by ITJobsWatch. Employer National Insurance is 15% above £5,000 a year in 2026 to 2027, which adds £12,375 (15% × £82,500). That makes £99,875 a year before pension, recruitment and equipment.

Ask yourself:
- Is there enough AI work for a full-time role after the first agent ships?
- Who reviews their work and approves anything risky?
- What happens to the system if they leave?

### Doing it yourself
An owner can build a simple agent with ChatGPT, Claude, Zapier or n8n. Claude Team costs $20 a seat a month billed annually, or $25 monthly, for teams of 2 to 150. n8n also offers a free self-hosted version on GitHub. The cost is your own time and the parts that are easy to skip, such as testing on real inputs and approvals before the agent acts.

Ask yourself:
- Who approves anything that sends money, emails a customer or deletes data?
- Where is customer data processed, and is that allowed under your privacy policy?
- How will you know when it stops working?

## Which route fits which business
Match the route to how much the agent touches and how much of it you want to own and run yourself.

- For one simple task, a small budget and time to manage it, use a freelancer or build it yourself.
- For one or two workflows across tools you already use, use a no-code automation shop.
- For an agent that talks to customers, touches money or connects several systems, use a build agency.
- For a steady pipeline of AI work, enough for a full-time role, hire in-house.

The in-house figure puts the others in scale. £99,875 a year would pay for 12 first-agent builds at SpotDev's £8,000 (12 × £8,000 = £96,000), with £3,875 left over. The [AI agent cost guide](/guides/ai-agent-cost) breaks down one build, and the guide to an [AI agency or an in-house AI team](/guides/ai-agency-vs-in-house-ai-team) compares the two in full.

## How Yarigai builds an AI agent
Yarigai is a done-for-you AI agency in London that builds AI agents inside a client's own accounts. The client owns the code, the data and the accounts from day one, so the client can hand the system to another developer.

1. A free 30-minute scope call on Google Meet. The client keeps the notes whether they hire Yarigai or not.
2. A blueprint in about a week, credited to the build. It contains a written plan, a clickable prototype, the monthly running cost, a fixed price and the payback maths.
3. A build of 2 to 6 weeks with a demo of working software every week. A single workflow can go live in about two weeks.
4. Optional monthly care, which the client can cancel any month and keep everything.

A person approves anything that sends money, emails a customer or deletes data. AI and hosting bills are paid by the client at cost. Yarigai's guarantee is "If the build isn't profitable for you, we won't build it."

Yarigai's founder, Deniz Sancar, built 38-0-0, a football squad-draft game that reached No. 1 in the UK App Store's top free games, above Fortnite. Yarigai also built and runs Outtest, AI agents that run split tests, listed on the Stripe App Marketplace. See [custom AI agents](/services/ai-agents) for what Yarigai builds.

## Common questions
### Who can build an AI agent for a small business in the UK?
A Fiverr or Upwork freelancer, a no-code automation shop, a build agency, an in-house hire, or the owner with tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or n8n. UK agencies published first-agent starting prices of £2,500 to £8,000 in November 2026, while the top Fiverr listings for "AI agent" cost £127 to £3,051.

### Can I build an AI agent myself with ChatGPT or Claude?
Yes, for a simple task. Claude Team costs $20 a seat a month billed annually, and n8n's Starter plan costs €20 a month billed annually, with a free self-hosted version. The hard parts are testing on real inputs, approvals before the agent acts and noticing when it breaks.

### Is Fiverr a good place to get an AI agent built?
It is the cheapest way to hire someone. The top 12 Fiverr listings for "AI agent" cost £127 to £3,051 on 7 November 2026. Before you order, agree that the agent runs in your own accounts and that you get the workflow or code and a written guide at handover.

### How much does it cost to hire someone to build an AI agent?
It depends on the route. Top Fiverr listings cost £127 to £3,051, UK freelancers quote £400 to £800 a day, UK agencies published first-agent starting prices of £2,500 to £8,000, and an in-house AI engineer costs £99,875 a year with employer National Insurance on the £87,500 median salary.

### Who maintains an AI agent after it is built?
Whoever you agree in writing. Agencies and automation shops sell care plans, for example flowio from £150 a month and BRVO at £400 to £1,500 per agent a month. A freelancer may not be available later, and an in-house agent depends on the person who built it.

### What is the difference between an automation shop and an AI agency?
An automation shop usually connects tools on a platform such as n8n, Make or Zapier. A build agency writes the agent as software and connects it to your systems. The guide to an [AI agent or automation](/guides/ai-agent-vs-automation) explains which one a job needs.

## Sources
1. [Results for ai agent](https://www.fiverr.com/search/gigs?query=ai%20agent), Fiverr, checked 7 November 2026.
2. [Upwork Web, Mobile and Software Dev rates, November 2026](https://snipework.com/market/rates/web-mobile-software-dev), Snipework, computed 6 November 2026, checked 7 November 2026.
3. [Prices: AI Audit, Agents, Software and MVPs](https://www.augustova.co.uk/pricing), Augustova, checked 7 November 2026.
4. [AI Automation Agency UK, Custom Business Workflows](https://www.flowio.co.uk/), flowio, checked 7 November 2026.
5. [How Much Do AI Agents Cost in the UK? A Transparent Breakdown](https://www.spotdev.co.uk/blog/how-much-do-ai-agents-cost-uk), SpotDev, published 27 May 2026, checked 7 November 2026.
6. [Custom AI Agents for SMEs, Built and Managed for You](https://www.brvo.co.uk/), BRVO, checked 7 November 2026.
7. [Artificial Intelligence Engineer Job Trends, Salaries and Skill Sets](https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/artificial%20intelligence%20engineer.do), IT Jobs Watch, six months to 6 November 2026, checked 7 November 2026.
8. [Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employers-2026-to-2027), GOV.UK, updated 1 September 2026, checked 7 November 2026.
9. [Claude pricing](https://claude.com/pricing), Anthropic, checked 7 November 2026.
10. [n8n pricing](https://n8n.io/pricing/), n8n, checked 7 November 2026.
11. [Zapier pricing](https://zapier.com/pricing), Zapier, checked 7 November 2026.