Strategy consultancy
AI maturity assessments, roadmaps, opportunity sizing, and change-management decks. The deliverable is a plan. Good fit when leadership needs to align before any build starts.
If you are comparing an AI agency or AI automation agency, the buying question is simple: will you get a plan, a build, or the work handled?
Strategy consultancies sell the plan.
Dev shops sell the custom build.
Rebotify sells the third option: a managed AI employee doing one workflow inside your existing tools, live in 48 hours.
Send the recurring work nobody wants to own.
Mia tells you the first AI employee role that can take it off the team.
Most companies shopping for “an AI agency” are quietly trying to choose between three different service models. The pitches sound similar; the deliverables are not.
AI maturity assessments, roadmaps, opportunity sizing, and change-management decks. The deliverable is a plan. Good fit when leadership needs to align before any build starts.
Custom builds — models trained, agents engineered, integrations wired. Good fit when you have a specific product to ship and an internal team to operate it after launch.
A named role doing one recurring workflow inside your existing tools. The agency operates the role end-to-end after launch. Good fit when you want the work done, not staffed.
WHEN EACH WORKS
All three models are legitimate. The honest test is what you need this engagement to leave behind.
Leadership needs a written plan before commitments are made. A board is asking for an AI roadmap. The political work is the work — alignment, opportunity sizing, change management.
You have a specific product or feature to ship — a custom-trained model, a unique agent architecture, a one-off integration. You have an internal team to operate it after handover.
You want the work done — drafts in the queue, decisions ready for approval, follow-ups chased — without staffing a builder, debugger, or platform admin. You hire a role; we run everything behind it.
SIDE BY SIDE
The three categories evaluated on what each one actually leaves on your team’s plate after the engagement.
| Dimension | Strategy consultancy | AI dev shop | Rebotify Managed AI employee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary deliverable | Strategy deck and roadmap | Custom build, then handover | A named AI employee doing one workflow |
| Time to useful output | Weeks of discovery before any build | 6–16 weeks for first usable build | 48 hours from kickoff to drafts in queue |
| Who operates it after launch | Your team (after the plan lands) | Your team (after handover) | Rebotify, weekly |
| What stays with you | A written plan | The build itself | Role setup, audit trail, and the operating relationship |
| Pricing shape | Consultant time-and-materials | Project fixed-bid or T&M | Per-workflow — flat, per task, or by outcome |
| When the work shifts | Out of scope; new engagement needed | Out of scope; change-order or new project | We tune weekly inside the engagement |
| Cancellation | Project ends naturally | Build ends; ongoing maintenance separate | Month-to-month, cancel any day |
Pick one recurring workflow — inbox triage, contract review, account brief prep, the role you would hire for tomorrow. The first useful drafts land in your approval queue within 48 hours. Each week we watch what missed, update the playbook, and tighten the prompts. Your team approves work; we run the system.
Triggers, inputs, outputs, sign-off points, and edge cases — written down like a job description before the AI employee touches live work.
A named role doing one workflow inside the tools your team already opens. Rebotify owns the model, prompts, integrations, and runtime.
Drafts and decisions surface in the inbox, CRM, or doc tool your team already uses — no new dashboard to log into.
Misses, edge cases, and policy updates become rules in the playbook every week. Quality metrics and queue health reported as part of the engagement.
The AI employee shape is the same; the role, vocabulary, sign-off points and tools differ by sector. We currently run roles inside these mid-market verticals.
Accounting firms
Client document chase, bank-rec exceptions, invoice-coding checks, BAS and close-pack prep.
Read the pageReal estate agencies
Tenant maintenance triage, vendor ETA chase, tenant updates, owner approval briefs.
Read the pageLegal teams
Matter facts, missing-document chase, conflict-check context, lawyer-ready briefs.
Read the pageInsurance brokers
Renewal inbox triage, client and carrier chases, policy deltas, broker review packs.
Read the pageHealthcare practices
Referral summaries, missing-document chase, eligibility blockers, booked-visit handoffs.
Read the pageFinance teams
Month-end close prep, variance commentary drafts, AP exception triage, board-pack assembly.
Read the pageHR & recruitment
CV screening drafts, candidate updates, interview scheduling, onboarding chase.
Read the pageMarketing teams
GA4, GSC, ads, SEO notes, project updates, and account follow-up in one report draft.
Read the pageConstruction & trades
RFQ status, subcontractor quote follow-up, drawing revisions, change-order review packets.
Read the pageFront desk
Email intake triage, voicemail transcription, intake-form processing, calendar booking.
Read the pageExecutive ops
Inbox triage, pre-meeting briefings, follow-up chasing, weekly status synthesis.
Read the pageEach workflow page describes one bounded operation: triggers, deliverables, sign-off points, tools the employee runs inside. Useful when you already know the work you want handled.
Support
Ticket triage, drafted first responses, escalation flags, policy-safe routing.
Read the pageRevenue ops
Activity logging, follow-up queue, account brief prep, deal anomaly flags.
Read the pageFinance ops
Inbox-to-system intake, vendor matching, exception flagging, approval routing.
Read the pageEcommerce
Support triage, abandoned-cart drafting, return triage inside Shopify and Klaviyo.
Read the pageRebotify is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. The AI employee lives inside your tools regardless of where your team sits — onboarding calls, weekly tuning, and account reviews are scheduled in working hours that suit you.
Local hours, Melbourne HQ. Same-day kickoff calls available across Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, and the wider AU/NZ market.
Asynchronous engagement with scheduled calls — typically Sydney mornings (US east-coast late afternoon) or evenings (west-coast morning). Drafts move overnight.
Asynchronous engagement with scheduled calls in the London afternoon (Melbourne late evening). Tuning happens between time zones, not against them.
Written-first, async-friendly. Calls scheduled to your working hours. The work itself runs continuously — your team approves on their schedule.
FAQ
An AI agency is a service business that helps another business apply AI to its operations. The three common shapes are strategy consultancy (plans and decks), dev shop (custom builds), and managed AI employee service (a named role doing the work end-to-end). Each is legitimate for a different buying problem.
A strategy consultancy delivers a plan; you still need to staff the build and operate it. A managed AI employee service delivers the work itself — a named role drafting, deciding, and escalating inside your existing tools. No internal build or operating team required.
Dev shops typically scope a project, build, hand it over, and exit. Rebotify scopes one recurring workflow and stays in the loop: we own the model, prompts, integrations, and weekly tuning after launch. You approve work; we run the system.
Strategy work runs weeks to months. Dev-shop builds typically run 6–16 weeks before useful output. A managed AI employee from Rebotify is live in 48 hours from kickoff — first drafts in the approval queue, scoped role, weekly review on the calendar.
Yes, and many enterprises do. A strategy consultancy sets the program; a managed service like Rebotify operates one workflow; a dev shop builds the bespoke product piece. The three roles compose; the trap is paying all three for the same job.
Concrete deliverables in week one, a named human owner on their side, clear sign-off points before customer-facing work moves, written escalation rules, scoped data access, and a monthly cadence rather than a one-shot project. If any of those are missing, the engagement will drift.
Per workflow, not per consultant-hour. Choose flat monthly, per-task, or by outcome — month-to-month with no setup fees. Cancel any time and you keep the role setup, escalation rules, and audit notes we built around your work.
Yes. The role setup, operating notes, audit trail, and agreed escalation paths are yours to keep. Access to the runtime is revoked the same day you cancel.
Send the recurring work nobody wants to own.
Mia tells you the first AI employee role that can take it off the team.