The essentials
An automation or AI agent project for a French SME costs between €3,000 and €25,000 to deploy depending on complexity, with a median ROI of +159.8% at 12 months and a break-even point reached within 3 to 6 months for 78% of SMEs. Neodigit builds business assistants, document extraction pipelines and measurable automated workflows, not spectacular demos with no real-world use.
Automation and AI: two levers, one question
“How do we put AI in our tool?” isn’t a strategy, it’s a technology purchase. The right question is the reverse: which tasks cost you the most time, focus or errors, and which of them can be delegated to a machine with no loss of quality?
Classic automation executes predefined rules: if a form is submitted, then send a confirmation email. It’s predictable, reliable, immediate.
Artificial intelligence analyzes, learns and adapts. An AI agent understands a question phrased differently each time, prioritizes a case based on its content, drafts a response a human then validates.
Combining both creates the most cost-effective workflows: automation handles the flow, AI makes the decisions that require judgment.
What we actually build
- Custom business assistants: connected to your documentation, procedures and databases. Your teams ask a question in natural language, the assistant answers with the right sources, not a generic chatbot.
- Document extraction and processing: automatic reading of invoices, purchase orders, contracts, forms. Key data extraction, quality control, injection into your business tools.
- Workflow automation: classification and routing of incoming requests, smart notifications, report generation, cross-tool synchronization via n8n, Make or custom connectors depending on the level of rigor required.
- Private LLM integration: language models (GPT, Claude, Mistral) integrated into your applications with strict data control, hosted in France or on-premise for sensitive projects.
Every project starts with an honest audit of your processes to identify what’s genuinely worth automating, before investing a single euro in technology.
How much it costs, what return to expect
An automation or AI agent deployment falls between €3,000 and €25,000 depending on complexity, plus a monthly subscription of €80 to €600 for hosting, maintenance and evolutions. A 20-to-50-employee SME structuring a genuine automation program in its first year typically budgets between €25,000 and €60,000.
The full breakdown by project size is on the pricing page. The ROI calculation, with the measurement method and the documented median ROI of +159.8% at 12 months, is detailed on the ROI page.
n8n, Make or custom: which tool to choose
No-code platforms like n8n and Make let you build automations without writing a line of code, and are enough for most SME needs. Custom development becomes relevant when the business logic is too complex for a visual connector, or when volume and security demand it.
The detailed comparison (architecture, cost, hosting, suited use cases) is on the n8n vs Make page.
GDPR, AI Act: a requirement for rigor, not a barrier
A chatbot or AI agent that processes personal data remains fully subject to GDPR, regardless of the model used. The European AI Act adds stronger disclosure obligations starting August 2, 2026, with fines that can reach €15 to €20 million or 3 to 4% of global revenue depending on the severity of the breach.
The details of the obligations and our compliance method are on the GDPR/AI Act compliance page.
Where to start without disrupting your organization
Successful automation is a human project before it’s a technical one. Our practical guide details the method: mapping processes, applying the 80/20 rule, involving teams from the start, choosing the right tools, measuring to improve. See the practical SME guide.
An under-exploited lever: your brand’s visibility in AI
ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews increasingly shape how prospects discover your business before they even visit your site. A YouTube channel with a handful of short videos has a measurable impact on this visibility, often greater than months of classic link building. See the AI visibility page.
Proof by use: two projects, two measured results
Regional bank, 300 branches. Scheduling for a network of 300 branches and 2,000 employees relied on Excel spreadsheets and manual exchanges between managers. We built a tool that externalizes business rules (quotas, remote work, branch types) into a dedicated engine, able to evolve without redeployment. Result: 300 branches connected from launch, ~2,000 active users, business rules followed with 100% fidelity, zero compliance incidents. See the case study.
Samsung, automated testing platform. QA teams spent weeks manually running the same test scenarios across dozens of models, several firmwares, several languages. The platform we built automates test creation, massively parallel execution and reporting, natively integrated into the existing CI/CD pipeline. Result: 80% reduction in test time, 60% increase in coverage, positive ROI within 3 months. See the case study.
FAQ
How much does an AI agent cost for an SME in France in 2026? Between €3,000 and €25,000 to deploy depending on complexity, plus a monthly subscription of €80 to €600. The full breakdown by project size is on the pricing page.
n8n, Make or a custom solution: which automation should I choose for my business? n8n and Make cover most simple-to-moderate synchronization and workflow needs, at costs far below custom development. Custom development becomes relevant beyond a certain level of business complexity, critical volume, or stronger security requirements. Full comparison on the dedicated page.
What’s the difference between a classic chatbot and an autonomous AI agent? A classic chatbot answers from predefined scenarios or rules: it never strays from a script. An autonomous AI agent understands a freely phrased intent, calls on several tools or data sources to build its answer, and can chain several steps with no human intervention at each one. The level of autonomy should always stay proportionate to the business risk: an agent that validates a customer order doesn’t have the same safeguards as one that answers a general question.
Let’s talk about your automation project. An initial audit identifies what’s genuinely worth automating before investing in technology.