Which UK company can build a custom AI agent for your business? An honest comparison

Which UK company can build a custom AI agent for your business?

The right company depends on how big you are and what your agent has to connect to. If your work already lives in Salesforce, Microsoft 365 or Intercom, start with the agent that vendor sells, or a partner who builds on it. If you’re a large or regulated organisation, an enterprise AI consultancy such as Faculty, Kainos or Scott Logic. If you’re a mid-sized firm with one process to automate, a UK agent studio that publishes its prices, such as Tinderhouse, SpotDev or Codebased, or a small build firm like us. Offshore and nearshore teams cost less per hour and suit firms that can manage a remote project.

Logica HQ wrote this. We’re a UK AI engineering firm that builds custom AI agents, and we appear in the last category below, marked as ours. We haven’t ranked anyone first, ourselves included. Every company fact comes from that company’s own website, checked on 10 October 2026 and listed in the sources. Where a company doesn’t publish a price, we say so. We haven’t checked anyone’s client claims, and we don’t repeat them.

Why do the ‘top AI agent companies’ lists all disagree?

Search for an AI agent development company in the UK and most of page one is lists written by the companies on them. In each list we opened, the author ranked itself first: &above, Ciphernutz, DBB Software and Inoxoft. &above says so plainly in its own entry: it is its own studio, so weigh the claim against the public work. That is fair advice for every list, including this one.

Those lists also leave out the two things a buyer needs most: what each firm costs and what it isn’t good for. Apart from two hourly rates in Inoxoft’s list, none of the four gives a price for the firms it lists. So this guide groups firms by the kind of work they do, gives a cost signal for each from its own pages, and says where each one runs out.

What kinds of company build AI agents in the UK?

The sections below take each kind in turn, with what every firm in it says about itself. For what the builds themselves cost across the market, see our AI agent cost guide, and for our own fixed prices, our pricing page.

Can you build the agent on software you already pay for?

Often, yes. The big business platforms now sell their own agents, priced by use, and a set of UK partners build on them. If your customer records, documents and email already sit in one of these, this is the cheapest place to start.

• Microsoft Copilot Studio

  Microsoft’s agent builder for Microsoft 365. Its UK page sells it as packs of 25,000 Copilot Credits at £153.80 a pack per month, or pay-as-you-go. You can build simple agents in-house; partners build the harder ones.

• Axon

  A firm based in the south of Manchester that builds agents mostly on Copilot Studio and Power Automate, inside your own Microsoft tenant, for jobs such as triaging enquiries, preparing reports, chasing approvals and updating CRM records. Price not published.

• Steer73

  A London AI agent development company. It says it is technology-agnostic but specialises in the Microsoft ecosystem: Azure OpenAI, Copilot Studio and Power Platform. It starts with a free discovery phase, then works on a fixed price, time and materials, or as a managed service. Simple agents take weeks and complex ones a few months, on its own estimate. Price not published.

• Salesforce Agentforce

  Salesforce’s agents run on Salesforce data. Its UK pricing page lists £1.60 per conversation, or £400 per 100,000 Flex Credits charged per action.

• Intercom Fin

  A customer conversation agent sold by Intercom from $0.99 per Fin outcome, on top of seats from $29 a month. Prices are in US dollars.

Where this runs out: a platform agent works on what’s inside that platform. If the job crosses your shared mailbox, a PDF price list and job software from another vendor, you’ll need a build that connects them. Per-use pricing also adds up at high volume: 500 Agentforce conversations a month is £800.

Who builds AI agents for large organisations?

These firms work with large companies, public bodies and regulated sectors. None of them publishes a price; fees are set per engagement.

• Faculty

  A London AI company at 160 Old Street. Its site lists industries from public services, defence and national security to health, financial services and energy. Price not published.

• Kainos

  A technology company with a public-sector digital services practice and a Workday business. Kainos says it has supported 60 million-plus users across public sector projects, has been a Workday partner since 2011 with teams in 17 countries, and sells products for deploying agents in Workday. Price not published.

• Scott Logic

  A software consultancy with six offices across the UK. It offers to help clients safely harness agentic technology, and lists financial services, government and energy among its industries. Price not published.

• &above

  An AI product agency for scale-ups and enterprises that designs and builds agents and AI products its clients own. Its own guide says a scoped agent for a single workflow typically lands in the low tens of thousands, with multi-workflow work staged and costing more.

• PolyAI

  A voice specialist that builds dialog agents for enterprise conversations, mainly phone calls, with data residency options including the UK. Price not published on the pages we could read.

Where this runs out: these firms are built for large programmes, and their engagements are priced to match. A 20-person firm that wants one inbox sorted is unlikely to be their customer, and shouldn’t need to be.

When they’re the better fit: you’re a public body, a regulated enterprise or a large company that needs governance, assurance and many agents across departments. For that, hire one of these, not a small build firm like us.

Which UK studios publish what they charge?

These firms build agents for mid-sized businesses and say what they cost. They’re listed alphabetically.

• Built Logic

  Works only with construction and the built environment. A custom-built system for one process is £4,000 to £16,000 + VAT, built on your own accounts, which you own, with the first month of support included and a monthly Support Plan agreed with the build. If you’re not in construction, it isn’t for you.

• Codebased

  A software house in Stafford, Staffordshire that builds web and mobile apps and puts AI agents into the systems clients already run. Its pricing is a build fee for a fortnight of engineering (the figure isn’t published), then £1,500 a month for one process, £2,750 for up to three and £4,500 for up to six, covering hosting, model usage, upgrades and improvement. That monthly fee is higher than ours, partly because it includes model usage, which we charge at cost on top.

• SpotDev

  A Bath firm that offers OpenAI and Claude partner services and works with UK B2B companies that run on HubSpot, with an active subscription and at least £3m in revenue. Its fixed prices are £8,000 for a first working agent in production, £20,000 for custom agents with deeper integration, and £45,000 for a wider programme. It says a first rollout is typically live in two to three weeks. If you don’t use HubSpot or turn over less than £3m, it’s not aimed at you.

• Tinderhouse

  An app, website and AI agency in Canterbury and London. It builds role-based agents for sales, support and research, and lists a typical investment of £7K to £25K for a Starter agent with one or two integrations (10 to 14 weeks), £25K to £75K for Production (16 to 20 weeks) and £75K to £150K+ for an Enterprise multi-agent system (20 to 24 weeks). It says its own Activity Insights feature in Map My Tracks serves over a million users. The timelines are longer than most smaller firms quote.

Where this kind runs out: there is little independent evidence about any small firm, us included. You’re buying people as well as code. Ask to see something running, find out who looks after it when your other software changes, and get the scope and price in writing.

Should you use an offshore or nearshore development company?

Several of the companies on page one build from teams outside the UK and sell to UK clients. That can cost less per hour. It also means more of the project management falls on you.

• Inoxoft

  A software company whose own site lists offices in the USA, Poland, Estonia and Ukraine. Its UK guide prices its own senior AI and machine learning engineers at £20 to £40 an hour, and says rates across the market run from roughly £20 an hour for nearshore teams to £150 an hour and up for London boutique consultancies. No project price is published.

• DBB Software

  Its own list gives its headquarters as Kraków, Poland, and describes custom AI agent development and multi-agent orchestration among its services. Price not published.

• Ciphernutz

  Its own list describes it as a UK-based AI agent development company. The address on its contact page is in Surat, India. Price not published.

Where this runs out: you need someone on your side who can write a clear scope, review the work and test it on real data. Ask where the engineers on your project are, which time zone they work in, who owns the code, and whose accounts it runs on.

Where does Logica HQ fit? (This is us)

We’re a UK AI engineering firm. We build custom agents on the systems a business already runs: shared inboxes, documents, price lists, job software and accounts. Our prices are fixed and published:

• Simple agent

  From £3,450 + £249 a month. One task, up to one connected system, live in one to three weeks.

• Multi-step agent

  From £8,950 + £449 a month. Several connected workflows across two to four systems, with a person signing off, over four to ten weeks.

• Complex system

  From £18,500 + £995 a month. Cross-department work, legacy systems and audit trails, scoped first in a discovery sprint that costs £1,250 and is credited in full against the build.

• Ready-made agents

  A website chat agent is £1,250 + £89 a month; an AI receptionist is £1,450 + £249 a month, with call minutes at cost.

Monthly plans have no minimum term, and AI usage is passed through at cost with no markup. The full list is on our pricing page.

Our limit: we’re a small firm. We don’t do enterprise programmes, public-sector assurance or company-wide transformation, and we can’t yet show you a long record of agent builds. Judge us on what you can check: published prices, no minimum term and a fixed price agreed before work starts. And if your platform’s own agent does the job, use it. It will cost you less than we will.

How do you choose the right company?

• Your work lives in one platform

  Start with that platform’s agent. If it needs building out, use a partner who works on that platform, such as Axon or Steer73 for Microsoft.

• You’re large, public-sector or regulated

  An enterprise consultancy: Faculty, Kainos, Scott Logic or &above. For phone-heavy contact centres, a voice specialist such as PolyAI.

• You run HubSpot and turn over £3m or more

  SpotDev is built for exactly you, and publishes its prices.

• You’re in construction

  Built Logic works only in construction and publishes its prices. Our construction comparison covers the rest of that market.

• You have one process that crosses a few systems

  A studio or build firm that publishes prices: Codebased if you want running costs bundled into one monthly fee, Tinderhouse if you want a larger team and longer build, or us for a fixed build fee with usage at cost.

• You want the lowest hourly rate and can manage the project

  A nearshore or offshore team, with a tight written scope and your own tester.

• You don’t know what to build yet

  Pay for discovery before you pay for a build. SpotDev’s readiness assessment is £5,000; our discovery sprint is £1,250 and comes off the build.

What should you ask any AI agent company, us included?

• What’s the price, in writing, including VAT, and what changes it?
• What does the monthly fee cover, and is AI usage on top?
• Is there a minimum term?
• Who owns the code, and whose accounts does the agent run on?
• Where are the engineers who’ll build it, and who do I call when it breaks?
• Is our data used to train anyone’s AI, and where is it stored?
• What does the agent do when it isn’t sure? Can I see the review queue?
• Can we test it on our own data before it goes live?
• What won’t you build, and what won’t this fix?

Frequently asked questions

• Which is the best AI agent development company in the UK?

  There isn’t one best company. Every page-one list we read ranks its own author first. Match the kind of company to your size and systems: platform partners for one-platform firms, enterprise consultancies for large organisations, studios and build firms for one defined process.

• How much does it cost to have a custom AI agent built?

  On the prices UK firms publish, from £3,450 (ours) and £4,000 to £16,000 + VAT (Built Logic) for one process, £8,000 for SpotDev’s first agent and £7K to £25K for Tinderhouse’s Starter tier, rising to £150,000 and more for multi-agent systems. Our cost guide goes through it in detail.

• Can I build an AI agent myself?

  For simple jobs inside one platform, often yes: Copilot Studio and Agentforce are designed for it. Work that crosses several systems usually needs an engineer.

• Do I need a UK-based company?

  Not necessarily, but ask where the engineers are, which time zone they work in, and under which country’s law the contract sits.

• How long does it take?

  On published timelines, one to three weeks for our simple tier, two to three weeks for SpotDev’s first rollout, and 10 to 14 weeks for Tinderhouse’s Starter tier. Multi-system work takes months.