How to choose an AI agency for your business

Choosing an AI agency for a real project — not a proof of concept that stays on a slide — comes with little public information and a lot of identical marketing: every studio promises “custom AI” and “results in weeks.” Dozens of consultancies and studios in Spain now advertise themselves as AI specialists, and there’s no clear standard for what a serious proposal should include before you sign anything. At Evicron, an AI and custom software studio based in Barcelona founded in 2019 with 200+ delivered projects across 12 sectors, we review other agencies’ proposals every month alongside businesses weighing several options. This guide covers what to ask, what to get in writing, and what separates a project that will actually work from one that stays a nice-looking pilot.

What any serious proposal should include, before you look at price

Before comparing quotes, an AI consultancy proposal should spell out, in writing:

• A closed scope: exactly what’s in and out of the price, not just “build an AI agent.”
• Who owns the code and the data once the project is delivered.
• How it gets validated before you pay for the whole project, not only at the end.
• Who maintains the system after delivery, and at what cost.

If a proposal doesn’t answer these four points, it probably wasn’t built to survive past the initial demo.

The questions to ask before signing

Who will actually work on my project? Talking to the salesperson isn’t the same as talking to whoever will write the code. Ask to meet the technical team before signing, not after.

Is the code and the data mine? If the answer means depending on the vendor forever to touch a single line of code or export your own data, that lock-in has a cost that never shows up in the initial quote but gets paid every year after.

How do I see it working before paying for everything? A reasonable answer is something clickable within the first few weeks, not just a PDF proposal and a delivery date months away.

What happens if the AI model they use changes price, gets slower, or gets discontinued? AI providers have already raised prices or retired models with little notice. A good agency designs the system so it can switch models without rebuilding the project; we cover this in more detail in why you shouldn’t bet everything on one AI provider.

Do they actually know the regulation that applies to them? The EU AI Act already requires documentation for certain systems and transparency when content is AI-generated. Spain’s AESIA has published 16 non-binding guides to apply the regulation; a vendor who knows them is a basic sign you won’t find out about a legal requirement through a fine.

Warning signs

• A fixed quote with no prior discovery call. Nobody can price a project seriously without first understanding how your business actually works.
• The same “AI agent” sold to every sector. A generic product dressed up as a custom project usually shows within the first week of real use.
• No clear answer on what happens to your data once it enters their system, or a third party’s model.
• Promises of a delivery in days for something that, by scope, is reasonably a project of weeks or months.

An impressive pilot vs. a project that scales

A demo chatbot wired to three sample documents is convincing in a meeting. The problem shows up afterward: connecting it to the business’s real data, keeping it working when prices or the catalog change, or scaling it to hundreds of daily conversations without the answers degrading. The difference between a pilot and a product that scales lives in that middle stretch you never see in the demo: monitoring, controlling model usage costs, and a clear plan for what happens when something breaks. It’s part of what separates a voice-agent prototype from Elop, our own AI voice-agent product: handling one test call is simple; handling real calls 24/7, booking against a real calendar and scoring every conversation consistently needs a much more solid technical base.

How we approach this at Evicron

We work in 4 phases with weekly sprints: a clickable demo by week 2, a reply to any question within 24 hours, and code you own with no lock-in once we’re done. The quote gets fixed after a free initial consultation, once we understand the real scope; as a reference, an applied AI project typically starts from €6,000, and an upfront consultancy to decide what to automate first starts from €1,500 per day of training or diagnosis. If you’d rather have us review a proposal you already have on the table, we do that too — sometimes the best second opinion is free.

Have a proposal from another agency and want a second opinion, or want us to look at what your business actually needs from scratch? Get in touch: the first consultation is free and we reply within 24 hours.