How to Build an AI Agency: Your Quick-Start Guide for 2025

George Vitko 07 Dec 2024

Robots taking over the workforce is no longer science fiction—artificial intelligence can now help businesses automate and enhance pretty much all processes, and we’re just witnessing the very beginning of this new era.

More and more businesses are turning to AI, mostly in their sales and marketing operations, to gain a competitive advantage. The issue is that integrating AI into a business can be quite complicated, to say the least.

As a result, a new type of business has emerged—AI agencies, designed to assist companies in effectively integrating AI into their operations without having to do this transformation on their own.

With the AI market projected to exceed a whopping $1.3 trillion by 2030, creating a successful AI agency is both a very lucrative and future-proof business, however, it’s no easy challenge.

Stick around as we cover the basics and explore the key steps to help you build a winning AI agency, along with some proven real-life examples for inspiration.

What is an AI automation agency?

You’ve probably heard this phrase before due to its growing trend, but what is an AI agency?

In simple terms, it’s a company that leverages AI technology to help enhance and automate key business processes for its clients. There are several ways AI agencies operate—they could either integrate customized AI into their client’s workflow, act as expert AI consultants or have their clients outsource certain processes that they will operate with their AI expertise.

Whichever business model it operates with, every AI agency has one goal in common—to help companies stay ultra-competitive in the increasingly AI-driven market.

Depending on the type of AI agency you choose to build, the core functions are usually:

Types of AI agencies

In recent years, we’ve witnessed a rapid growth of AI agencies spanning across virtually all industries, from tech and e-commerce to banking and healthcare, given its incredible potential to improve and scale operations.

At the same time, integrating AI into a business is a deeply overgeneralized statement, given the sheer amount of various processes that exist in every company. This is why AI agencies are often highly specialized to a certain department, with the most common ones being:

AI marketing agencies

This is perhaps the most common (and trending) type of AI automation agency in the world, given the numerous capabilities of AI to enhance marketing processes. Whether it’s creating personalized marketing campaigns, optimizing ad campaigns, leveraging analytics for data-driven decision-making, or managing content—AI can improve it all.

AI algorithms can analyze customer behavior and assess buying trends to help businesses create effective strategies. An AI marketing agency will either transform its client’s entire marketing workflow or specialize in a specific area. For instance, you could choose to specialize in creating and implementing customized chatbots to help businesses with inbound lead generation, building a dedicated AI chatbot agency.

AI sales agencies

Sales AI agencies are focused on driving revenue growth by leveraging AI to improve lead generation, predict sales trends, and automate outbound prospecting. In addition, they leverage AI to analyze crucial sales data to uncover high-potential opportunities and suggest the best next step for each lead.

Such agencies will more often than not use existing AI sales tools like Reply.io in their operations, taking over the entire sales process for their clients from identifying targeted leads and engaging them until they are ready to make a purchase.

With the rise of revolutionary AI SDRs like Jason AI, it has become incredibly easy for AI sales agencies to effectively manage multiple clients:

These AI SDRs flawlessly automate time-consuming sales processes like finding buyers, researching prospects and companies, crafting with hyper-personalized outreach, and even handle responses on their own.

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AI lead generation agencies

AI lead generation agencies step into their sales and marketing counterparts, but their sole focus is on helping businesses generate leads with more efficiency using AI. These agencies specialize in building targeted prospect lists, qualifying leads, and uncovering intent signals.

With the help of established AI lead generation tools, you can get your AI lead gen agency up and running in no time by creating a cohesive AI ecosystem where scraping data, analyzing behavior, and qualifying leads are seamlessly integrated into one automated process.

AI staffing agencies

Believe it or not, AI has transformed the hiring process as well, which is why there’s a sudden rise in AI HR agencies. These agencies change the way recruitment and workforce management work, leveraging AI algorithms to speed up resume screening, automate candidate outreach, and accurately predict who will fit best on each job.

An AI staffing agency will often use Predictive analytics to determine long-term candidate success, increasing retention rates. With their expertise, clients can create teams as efficiently as possible, without sacrificing quality and having to build an excessive hiring force.

General AI consulting agencies

AI consulting agencies are the more generalized companies more focused on AI as a whole rather than specific departments and workflows, offering complete solutions based on the different business challenges. An AI consulting agency can cater to all industries and span across all business processes, from strategic planning to custom AI model development.

This flexibility and wide-ranging expertise make such agencies a great solution for businesses looking to fully transform into an innovative AI workforce. Sure, there are certain platforms like Relevance AI that implement AI across your entire organization, but they’re hardly the type of software that you simply install and begin using.

This is where AI consulting agencies come into play to make this transition as smooth as possible.

Starting an AI agency: opportunities and challenges

As AI technologies become more complex and vital for business growth, there’s been a huge rise in demand for AI Agencies for their expertise and cost-effectiveness, as well as allowing the client to keep focusing on their day-to-day operations during the AI ‘makeover’.

When it comes to the countless opportunities that await AI agency founders, here are the main ones to get excited about:

High demand → from small startups to large enterprises, the demand for AI solutions and expertise is immense, and that applies to virtually all industries.
Future-proof → building an AI agency will position you in a market that will only grow in the future, without the fear of, well, AI itself taking over.
Scalability → it will take some time to build your AI agency, but once your AI business model is up and running, it can easily scale across multiple clients with minimal effort.
Diversification → AI can be applied in countless ways, so if you’ve successfully implemented your AI engine for e-commerce clients, nothing is stopping you from moving to other industries.
Measurable results →AI is built on data, producing measurable results that make it much easier to showcase your agency’s value to future clients.

On the other hand, it’s good to consider some of the most likely challenges you’ll face when building an AI agency:

High costs → there’s no way around an initial investment in AI technology and skilled professionals, among other hidden costs.
Talent scarcity → AI expertise is not easy to come by, and given its high demand nowadays, it might be extra hard to find and retain the top talent.
Client education → many of your potential clients may not fully understand the value of AI, or on the contrary, have unrealistic expectations, both of which require education.
Ethical and legal concerns → data privacy and other regulatory compliance needs to be carefully addressed, especially if you’re planning on working in the EU/US markets.

How to build an AI agency in 2025

Now that we’ve covered what AI agencies are and how they operate, it’s time to go over the 10 key steps in turning your idea into a fully-fledged business.

Keep in mind that building a successful AI automation agency is a very complex and demanding challenge, and while it’s virtually impossible to find the secret blueprint, it does help to visualize the journey that lies ahead of you.

Decide on your service focus

The first step is determining the specific area your agency will specialize in. In other words, will you focus on AI implementation in sales, marketing, staffing, lead generation, general consulting, or another area of business activity?

The more specialized you choose to structure your AI agency, the easier it will be to launch your operations and find clients in the early stages. A business that is looking to transform its marketing operations with AI will most probably choose AI marketing agencies rather than all-in-one AI agencies that also happen to do marketing activities.

There’s no ‘better’ option here since each niche has its unique demands and opportunities, but it’s undoubtedly better to go for the niche in which you have the most experience, passion, and network.

Master the process(es)

This goes without saying, but you have to be an absolute expert in the niche you choose to revolve your AI agency around. AI is a highly complicated area of technology, so clients will expect you to entirely bridge the gap for their business.

Before launching your business, make sure to invest sufficient time in mastering AI technologies, industry-related AI tools, and proven AI strategies applicable to your niche. Ideally, you will do a few free test runs to ‘learn on the job’ before presenting your agency to paid clients.

Develop a business model

This point goes back to what we discussed at the beginning of the article—how will you structure your AI agency services? Will you act as a consultant, develop customized AI solutions, integrate AI into existing workflows, or act as an outsourced team of AI experts?

Whatever it is, it’s crucial to be crystal clear about your exact business model so clients know exactly what they can expect working with your agency. A clarified business plan sets the foundation for sustainable growth, so have your pricing structures and service offerings on lock.

Additionally, consider creating diverse, scalable pricing packages that can cater to both small startups and enterprise clients to give you flexibility.

Build your team

No less important than the business model itself is the team that you build to execute your AI services. You’ll most probably need professionals with expertise in AI and data science, as well as the specific niche you choose to cater to.

The beauty of agencies is that you can start operating with a small team of motivated professionals, and once you’ve understood the individual and collaborative manpower required to take on one client, you can simply copy-paste the team structure when it’s time to scale for more clients.

Create your AI tech stack

The technology you use will be the backbone of your agency, so make sure you do extensive research into the various AI software available in the market.

For example, you may turn to platforms like Tableau or Power BI for data processing and visualization, and perhaps an AI coding platform like Cursor to build customized software.

If you choose to run your AI agency in an outsourced team model, it will be equally important to gear up with the right industry-related AI tools. For instance, if you’re building a sales AI agency, you’ll probably leverage AI SDRs like Jason AI to automate your clients’ sales operations:

Your agency will still need human expert oversight, no doubt, but the main value of such AI SDRs is that your agency could take on significantly more clients with the same manpower, without compromising on the quality of operations.

Your AI agency’s growth partner

Jason helps AI agencies dominate their market with data-driven outreach and multichannel campaigns that convert like crazy.

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Establish a strong online presence

This goes without saying, how else will you get your AI agency visible to your potential clients? The tech business world has become entirely digital, so remember to invest sufficient time and resources into developing a professional and optimized website that ideally showcases your services, case studies, and testimonials for brand credibility.

Moreover, leverage SEO strategies to rank for niche-related keywords, social media to connect with your audience, and double-down on AI content to showcase your expertise, be it valuable blog articles, daily TikTok/Instagram videos, and so on.

Also, just like with any other business, running strategic targeted ads never hurts to gain some traction!

Build strategic partnerships

Collaborating with complementary businesses will be a great boost in the very early stages of your AI agency which will help you to expand your brand awareness and increase your potential client base.

A neat strategy that many AI agencies adopt in their early stages is partnering with other, non-competing agencies that share similar target audiences, but provide different services.

So if you’re an outsourced marketing AI team and you’ve attracted a client who’s looking for customized AI marketing software, you could refer them to one of your partners that specialize in this direction, and they will do the same for you in return when the opportunity arises.

Offer pilot programs and discounts

When attracting your first clients, heavy discounts and pilot programs are your best bet. You may very well be better than the competition, but brand credibility and trust matter in modern business activities.

Think of these initial projects as the best reputation-building and client-attracting tools for the future, showcasing the impact your AI agency can produce.

Deliver exceptional client service

Linking back to the previous point, your first few projects will be absolutely crucial in setting a strong foundation for future success. Don’t just get the job done but try to exceed client expectations by producing exceptional results from your services.

At the same time, place a strong emphasis on building long-term relationships with all your clients from the very start, especially considering that AI agencies mostly work on 3-, 6-, or 12-month contracts. Also, your satisfied clients may very well refer you to others, so try to incorporate feedback loops wherever possible to continuously improve your services.

Stay updated on industry trends

It’s no secret that AI is a rapidly evolving realm, which is why it’s not enough to become an expert in your niche, launch your AI agency, and operate in a ‘fixed’ manner. It’s crucial to stay consistently informed about the latest AI advancements, technology, and industry trends to provide your clients with the most innovative and competitive solutions.

In fact, rather than chasing the shifting trends, why not position your agency as a thought leader in the AI space by collaborating with industry experts, publishing unique insights, hosting forward-thinking webinars, or participating in conferences?

Examples of successful AI agencies

While there are thousands of AI agencies worldwide, it’s still a relatively new phenomenon, so there are not that many real-life case studies to speak of. However, those who did examine their agency operations have shown fantastic results, and it’s no surprise given the enormous potential of AI when leveraged correctly.

EY (Ernst & Young)

EY is a global AI consulting agency that offers tailored AI solutions to organizations of all industries, a true leader in this realm.

In one of their more recent case studies, EY worked with a global IT organization with the objective to “deliver unparalleled client service, all while enriching the vendor experience.”

By leveraging their Fabric AI (an AI-powered technology accelerator), they managed to fully automate the vendor helpdesk with minimal human effort, and seamlessly provide secure information to payment, tax, and other key metrics to help their client’s operations:

LawGeex

LawGeex is an AI legal service agency that specializes in automating contract review processes for law firms and corporate legal departments.

In a recent case study, LawGeex successfully managed to reduce contract review times by 80% while also enhancing legal precision and compliance.

After several months of testing the AI effectiveness, LawGeex achieved an average 94% accuracy rate in reviewing legal contracts, compared to an average rate of 85% for human lawyers:

Levity AI

Levity AI is a comprehensive AI software provider that offers customized solutions for companies of all industries, depending on their exact operational needs. They operate as a hybrid AI software and AI agency, given their ability to tailor their products to clients’ unique needs.

One of their recent clients, a digital healthcare provider that aims to digitalize initial diagnostics, reached out with the common painpoint of an overload with tons of PDFs and other materials that come through a variety of channels, taking up too much time and manpower to effectively file, delegate, forward, and address them.

With Levity’s customized PDF classifier, their client managed to virtually eliminate all document processing-related work.

Apart from the main advantage of saving money, it also ensured that employees could prioritize the more important, healthcare-related tasks, which is good for the company and the world as a whole.

The future of AI agencies

Building an AI agency is both a challenging and rewarding endeavor.

Hopefully, this article gave you some ideas and inspiration on how to start an AI marketing agency and ensure it achieves great success. The industry will be saturated with AI agencies in the near future, but as of now—we’re still in the very early stages, giving you a prime opportunity to become a pioneer in this movement.

As emphasized several times, the first step should be mastering AI and becoming an AI guru before planning the business itself. By following the steps outlined in this guide, nothing is stopping you from creating an agency that will not only thrive in 2025 but also potentially play a pivotal role in shaping the future of industries worldwide.

It’s time to take that first step and embark on your journey to building a transformative AI agency with AI SDR 2.0 from Reply.io!