Requests arrive in five places
Web form, phone, inbox, chat, a personal message. Whether one gets answered depends on who was looking.
Service 01 · The operations practice
AI Operations
Get the work out of people’s hands and into a system that has a record.
Intake, qualification, scheduling, reporting, and handoffs, run by agents on the tools you already use. Every action logged, attributable, and reversible. Prices published below.
Free · No credit card · You leave with a ranked list of what to automate first
U.S. Army Special Forces veteran
Cyber Electronic Warfare Officer
RSA Conference speaker
One workflow · one morningAudit trail
08:02:14Request received · web formsystem
08:02:51Reply sent, two qualifying questions askedagent
08:09:06Rules checked · territory, urgency, authorityrule
08:09:07Escalated to a person · no decision authorityrule
08:14:22Owner assigned, record written to the CRMagent
08:14:23Line added to the weekly operations reportagent
Illustrative interface with fictional data. Not live customer activity, and not a performance claim. The point is the shape of the record, not the numbers in it.
The problem
The work is being done by hand, and nobody can prove what happened.
Six places the hours go in an operations team.
The rules live in one person’s head
Territory, urgency, budget, authority. Everyone applies them a little differently.
Booking takes four messages
Offer times, wait, lose the slot, offer again.
Monday is spent rebuilding the numbers
Export, paste, reconcile, format. The report describes a week that is over.
Context is retyped at every boundary
Sales to operations to delivery to invoicing. Each pass loses detail.
There is no record
Asking people afterwards gives you a recollection, not a record.
Adding an AI pilot on top of this does not fix it. 37% of organizations use AI only at a surface level, and only 21% report a mature model for agent governance (Deloitte, 2026 State of AI).
The risk is not using AI badly. It is running it without a record.
What gets built
Six deliverables. Each one names what you receive.
Built on the tools you already run. Nobody moves into a new dashboard.
- 01Intake
- 02Qualify
- 03Schedule
- 04Report
- 05Hand off
- 06Audit trail
One intake queue
Every inbound route lands in one queue with its source stamped on it.
You receiveA connected path per channel, the routing rules in writing, and a named owner per queue.
A qualification rulebook the agent applies
Territory, urgency, budget, and authority checked the same way every time. Anything that fails a rule goes to a person.
You receiveThe rulebook, the escalation paths, and the list of decisions the system never makes alone.
Scheduling into real capacity
Only genuinely open slots are offered, assigned by your rules, confirmed and held immediately.
You receiveA live calendar integration, the assignment logic in writing, and editable confirmation templates.
Reporting that assembles itself
Numbers are written as the work happens, with definitions fixed once.
You receiveA scheduled report on your cadence, plus a sheet naming how each figure is counted.
Handoffs that carry their context
The record moves between stages with everything attached. Nothing is retyped at a boundary.
You receiveA mapped handoff per boundary, the fields that travel with it, and the exception path.
An audit trail on every action
What acted, on what basis, when, and what it touched. Written before go-live.
You receiveAn audit configuration you could show an auditor, and an access inventory.
How it works
Five stages. A decision point at every one.
No stage begins before you have seen what the last one produced. Stop at any gate and keep everything built so far.
01
Discover
A free 15-minute call, then a short working session to rank the friction by what it costs you.
- You receive
- A written map of current state, friction ranked by cost.
- Risk control
- Read-only access. Nothing is changed, connected, or granted.
- Your call
- Do you agree with the diagnosis, and is the top item worth fixing?
02
Design
The workflow is specified before it is built: triggers, rules, exceptions, escalations, and the boundary the system never crosses alone.
- You receive
- A workflow spec and data-flow diagram any competent engineer could build from.
- Risk control
- Data classes identified up front; sensitive material scoped out or protected.
- Your call
- Does the spec match how you would want a good employee to behave?
03
Build
Implementation in test mode, on your real tools and data shapes, but not your real customers until you say so.
- You receive
- A working system you can drive yourself, plus the test evidence behind it.
- Risk control
- Outbound is gated. Nothing reaches a customer while it is still being proven.
- Your call
- Having watched it run on your data, do you trust it to talk to a customer?
04
Secure
Access is narrowed, credentials move into managed storage, and the audit trail goes on before go-live. Deeper testing and governance sit in Secure AI.
- You receive
- An access inventory and audit configuration you could show an auditor.
- Risk control
- The blast radius of any single compromised credential is established in writing.
- Your call
- Are you comfortable with what each system could reach if compromised tomorrow?
05
Operate
Go-live, then the unglamorous part: watching it, tuning rules, and keeping it working as vendor APIs move.
- You receive
- Ongoing operation, or a clean handoff to your team, your choice, stated up front.
- Risk control
- Patching and dependency review continue. An unmaintained automation is a liability.
- Your call
- Do you want us operating this, or do you want the keys?
Outcomes & evidence
What you hold at the end of it.
Automation is easy to demo and hard to trust. These are the artefacts an AI Operations engagement produces.
The workflow map
Every trigger, rule, handoff, exception, and escalation path documented, including what the system will not do on its own.
The running agents
The live workflows on your accounts and credentials. Switch any of them off without calling us.
The audit trail
Every automated action attributable, timestamped, and reversible.
The runbook
How to operate it day to day, change a rule, read an alert, and who to call in what order.
The handover
Credentials, accounts, specs, and diagrams transferred to your team, written so they can run it without us.
The access inventory
Which system can reach which data, under whose credentials, with least privilege applied and the gaps named.
We do not publish customer counts, revenue impact, or time-saved figures. They are easy to invent and impossible for you to verify. Client references are available on request, with permission.
Pricing
Here are the prices.
Published, in text, before you speak to anyone. The monthly retainer is the main engagement. A fixed-scope build is the right first step if you want proof before a relationship.
Monthly retainer
Build capacity and operation together. Cancel or change tier as your season shifts.Reconnaissance
$2,600 starting / monthGet one workflow off your plate at a time, done properly. The usual entry point.
- One workflow at a time, automated then maintained
- Bi-weekly strategy calls
- Monthly reporting · email support
Operations
$5,525 starting / monthShip new automations while everything already live keeps getting tuned.
- Several workflows built and optimised in parallel
- Tooling integration & documentation
- Weekly strategy calls · priority response
- A named lead who knows your stack
- Monthly operations report, with what to automate next
- Quarterly access and audit-trail review
- Runbook and handover kept current as the system changes
- Priority slot for new builds and integrations
Command
$14,625 starting / monthRun AI operations with an embedded partner. Security leadership included, hosting covered.
- Dedicated build-and-governance capacity
- Full AI workspace architecture
- AI security audit included
- Dedicated lead · embedded weekly cadence
- Hosting, monitoring & governance included
AI agent builds
Fixed scope, fixed price, yours to keep. The care plan carries the agent after handoff.Starter Agent
$789 one-timeHand your email and your files to a lean assistant. Built in under 30 days.
- Email triaged and answered
- File storage organised
- Core automations configured
- Written handoff + a month of light support
Integrated Agent
$1,250 one-timeConnect your calendar and the tools your day actually runs on. Roughly six weeks.
- Everything in the Starter Agent
- Calendar invites drafted and sent
- Up to 5 more integrations (Slack, Notion, CRM…)
- Custom skills & templates
Care Plan
$232 / monthKeeps the agent running as your tools and their APIs change. The default next step after handoff.
- Monitoring on the live workflows
- Updates and fixes as vendors change
- The on-ramp to a monthly retainer
À la carte
Interested in a single build, or in training your team? These are scoped and priced on what is needed, not off a rate card.- BuildIndividual AI agent buildOne agent, one workflow, scoped to the tools you already run.
- SecurityIndividual cybersecurity assessmentWhere your AI and your systems are exposed, in writing.
- TrainingAI trainingWhat AI can and cannot do for your business, for leaders and teams.
- TrainingAI prompt training for your teamReliable output from the tools you already pay for.
- TrainingHands-on trainingYour people build and run an agent with us in the room.
Each one is quoted after the free call, once we know what is needed. Book a free 15-minute call
All prices in USD. Reconnaissance and Operations add $325/month for hosting & security: managed hosting, uptime monitoring, updates, and patching. Command includes it. One-time builds cover a fixed scope. Anything beyond it is quoted separately, before the work starts, and can roll into a monthly retainer.
Use the engagement selector on the homepage: four questions, and you get the engagement shape that fits with its price.
The AI Field Manual
Building & Securing AI Agents
Free download · two questions
Download the AI Agent Field Manual.
The practical guide we wrote for people who want to build and secure their own agents. Answer the two questions below and it downloads straight away, with a copy to your inbox. If it saves you hiring us, that is a perfectly good outcome.
Questions
The things operations leaders actually ask.
The one that is high volume, rule-shaped, and already documented in someone’s head. Intake and qualification usually win, because they run every day, they follow rules a person can state out loud, and a delay there costs a deal rather than an hour. We rank candidates on the discovery call and write the ranking down. Some of what you want automated should not be, we will say which, and why.
That is the constraint we build to. Email and calendar, file storage, Slack or Teams, Notion, CRMs, scheduling and ticketing tools, and most systems with a usable API. Nothing here asks your team to move into a new dashboard. If a system you depend on has no API, we say so in the design stage rather than building a fragile workaround and handing you the maintenance bill.
It escalates instead of guessing. Every workflow is specified with the rules it must satisfy and the boundary it may never cross alone. Anything that fails a rule, or falls outside the rules entirely, stops and goes to a named person with the context attached. When something does go wrong, the audit trail tells you what acted, on what basis, and when, so the fix is a rule change rather than an investigation.
Start with a build if you want proof before a relationship. The Starter Agent is $789 one-time and the Integrated Agent is $1,250 one-time, both fixed scope and yours to keep. The $232/month care plan carries the agent after handoff. A monthly retainer starts at $2,600 and is the right step once you have more than one workflow to fix. Individual builds and team training are also available à la carte.
You own it. The accounts, the credentials, the workflow spec, and the runbook are yours, written so your team can operate and change the system without us. You then choose: keep it in-house, take the care plan, or move to a monthly engagement. Dependence is not a business model we are interested in, and the handover document is written on the assumption that you might leave.
The Starter Agent is delivered in under 30 days and the Integrated Agent in roughly six weeks. On a monthly engagement the first workflow usually reaches live operation inside the first month, because the build stage runs in test mode against your real tools before anything is allowed to reach a customer. You see working output at every gate, not a status update.
15-minute discovery call
Book fifteen minutes.
A short working call, not a sales sequence. We walk your intake, your queues, and your reporting, and name the specific places manual effort is costing you. Free, and it books straight into the calendar.
Free · No credit card · No obligation to buy anything afterwards
- Where your inbound actually lands, and how fast it gets answered
- Which repetitive work is worth automating first, and which is not
- What your systems can currently reach that you have not thought about
- A recommended engagement shape, or an honest “you do not need us yet”
Before the call
Read what gets built: six deliverables, each with what you receive.
Read the five stages: and the decision you make at each gate.
Read the prices: builds from $789, monthly retainer from $2,600.
Read the Secure AI practice: for knowing what your AI did, who told it to, and what it touched.
Back to TheZaraAI home: the interactive demo, the founder, and the full FAQ.
Read first, decide later
The five workflows every business should automate first: how we rank candidates before anyone spends money.
What an AI agent actually is: the plain definition, without the pitch.
Putting an agent on your email: the workflow most teams start with.