Automation Care — Managed AI Services for SMEs

Building an automation is the easy part. Keeping it working — as your tools update, your volumes grow and new edge cases appear — is where most SMEs quietly lose the value they paid for. Automation Care is our managed service for exactly that: your automations monitored, maintained and improved every month, so they keep returning hours instead of decaying into a liability. No in-house AI team required.

What is Automation Care?

Automation Care is a monthly managed service that keeps your AI automations running and improving. It covers monitoring, fixes, tuning and proactive optimisation under a clear SLA — the ongoing operational layer that turns a one-off build into a system you can rely on long term.

Think of it as the difference between buying a machine and having it serviced. The build gets your automation live; Automation Care keeps it live and makes it better. We watch for silent failures, fix issues before they reach your customers, adapt workflows when an upstream tool changes, and look for new efficiencies as we learn how your operation actually runs.

Why do AI automations need ongoing care?

Because automations are living systems, not finished products. Upstream tools change formats, volumes grow, models shift behaviour, and new edge cases appear. Without monitoring and maintenance, an automation degrades silently — often still appearing to work while quietly producing errors.

The most dangerous automation failure is the invisible one: a workflow that looks healthy while misclassifying, mis-routing or dropping data behind the scenes. By the time someone notices, the damage has accumulated. Ongoing care exists to catch that early — and to keep improving performance rather than letting it drift. It is the single biggest determinant of whether automation pays back over years or breaks within months.

What is included in Automation Care?

Every plan includes monitoring, issue resolution, routine tuning and a response-time SLA. Higher tiers add proactive optimisation, priority response, more included change requests and regular review sessions. All plans are delivered by people, not just a dashboard.

Core inclusions

• Continuous monitoring of your automations for failures and performance drift.
• Issue resolution within an agreed SLA response time.
• Routine tuning as inputs, tools and volumes change.
• A named point of contact who knows your setup.

Higher-tier additions

• Proactive optimisation — we look for new savings, not just fix what breaks.
• Priority response and a larger allowance of included change requests each month.
• Scheduled review sessions to plan improvements and the next automations.

How much does Automation Care cost?

Automation Care starts from £395 per month. The tier you need depends on how many automations you run, how business-critical they are, and how much ongoing improvement you want. You can also combine it with Compliance Guard for a single governed, maintained package.

Pricing is a monthly retainer, so your automations are covered continuously rather than each fix being a separate negotiation. If you also need AI Act governance maintained alongside your automations, the Compliance Guard add-on combines with Automation Care into our Professional bundle from £995 per month — automation upkeep and compliance governance in one relationship.

Who is Automation Care for?

It is for SMEs that already run one or more AI automations and want them kept reliable without hiring internally. It suits owner-operators who cannot afford downtime and operations leads who need automations to keep pace with a changing business — without becoming the person who maintains them.

If you have automations live and find yourself either firefighting when they break or, worse, not noticing when they do, Automation Care removes that burden. It is also the natural continuation after an implementation: we build the system, then keep it healthy and improving under one ongoing relationship. To find the highest-value automations to build in the first place, start with our Ops & Compliance 360° Health Check, and see the bigger picture in our AI Automation for SMEs playbook.

How does Automation Care work in practice?

We start by reviewing your live automations and agreeing a tier and SLA. From there we monitor continuously, resolve issues within the agreed response time, tune as things change, and — on higher tiers — meet regularly to plan improvements. You get a named contact and a predictable monthly cost.

There is no complicated onboarding. We map what you already have running, agree what "healthy" looks like for each automation, and set the monitoring up. After that the rhythm is simple: we watch, we fix, we tune, and we report. When you adopt a new tool or your volumes shift, we adapt the automations rather than leaving you to discover the breakage. On higher tiers, a scheduled review turns that reactive safety net into a proactive improvement loop — we come to you with the next opportunity, not just a status update.

What happens when an automation breaks?

Our monitoring flags the issue, often before you notice it. We diagnose and resolve within your SLA response time, keep you informed, and — where useful — adjust the automation so the same failure cannot recur. The goal is to catch silent failures early and stop them reaching your customers.

Most automation damage comes from failures that go unnoticed, so the first job is detection. Once an issue is flagged, we handle the fix within the response time your tier guarantees, and we look at whether the root cause can be designed out rather than just patched. You are never left wondering whether a workflow is quietly misbehaving — that uncertainty is precisely what the service removes.

Frequently asked questions

What is AI automation maintenance and why does it matter?

AI automation maintenance is the ongoing work of monitoring, fixing and tuning automations after they go live. It matters because automations degrade as tools, data and volumes change — often invisibly — so without maintenance the value you paid for erodes and errors can reach customers unnoticed.

How does an AI automation retainer work?

You pay a fixed monthly fee and your automations are covered continuously — monitoring, issue resolution within an SLA, and routine tuning — rather than paying separately for each fix. Higher tiers include proactive optimisation and a monthly allowance of change requests.

Do you provide AI support for small business without an in-house team?

Yes. Automation Care is designed for SMEs with no internal AI capacity. We provide the monitoring, maintenance and improvement, with a named point of contact, so you get reliable automations without hiring.

Can I combine Automation Care with compliance support?

Yes. Automation Care pairs with Compliance Guard, which maintains your AI Act governance. Together they form the Professional bundle from £995/month — one relationship covering both automation upkeep and compliance.