No spin. Where each one wins, where each one hurts, and where we fit.
| Option | Real cost | Time to value | Who does the thinking | Commercial fit | Stays after handover |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY / ChatGPT | Cheap to start, costly in lost time | Weeks of trial and error | You, off the side of your desk | You know the business, not the build | It is yours to maintain |
| In-house hire | £80k to £120k plus ramp | Months before real output | Them, once they are up to speed | Strong, if you can keep them busy | Yes, while they stay |
| Traditional agency | Retainer, often open-ended | Slow, layered through account managers | Their strategists, off your floor | Built for their process, not your numbers | Until the retainer ends |
| Freelance builder | Day rate, cheap per hour | Fast to start building | You decide what, they build it | Code-first, not business-first | No, they move to the next gig |
| The operator model | £3k to £15k, fixed per outcome | Shipped in weeks | We do, from the commercial side | We come from your side of the business | Yes, warranty plus an optional seat |
Getting a feel for what AI can do, and speeding up one-off tasks for one person.
ChatGPT helps a person do a task faster. It does not change how the business runs. Teams that build it themselves tend to end up with a dozen disconnected workflows and abandoned pilots within ninety days. The problem was never access to AI. It is turning AI into operational change, and that is a different job.
A long run of AI work that justifies a full salary on the payroll.
An in-house AI hire is £80k to £120k, plus six months to ramp, plus the overhead of keeping them busy. Most teams of 10 to 50 are not there yet. You need one outcome shipped, not a headcount. We help you get to the point where the hire pays for itself.
Brand campaigns and big creative pushes run through a managed team.
Agencies optimise for their process and their content engine, not your numbers. You get strategists removed from your floor, layered through account managers, on a retainer that rarely ends. We optimise for the metric you care about, then get out of the way.
A clearly specced job where you already know exactly what to build.
A freelancer puts hands on a keyboard and builds what you tell them. They will not tell you which problems are worth solving. That is code-first, not business-first. Pick the wrong thing to automate and you get a working build of the wrong thing.