Building the tool is the easy part. What kills most AI projects is month three, when a model changes, an integration breaks, and nobody owns it. We build your AI, then we run it, monitor it, and keep making it better.
Plans from $250/mo. No contract. Denver and the Front Range.
The problem
The build gets handed over and rots.
It works the week it ships. Then a model gets deprecated, an API changes, a price updates and nobody tells the bot. Six months later it's confidently wrong and quietly costing you customers.
Nobody actually owns it.
The agency finished. Your office manager isn't an engineer. So when something breaks, it either gets ignored or it lands on whoever is least busy, which is nobody.
It never gets better.
The first version is a guess. Real usage tells you what to fix, but only if someone is watching. Without that, you're stuck with version one forever and paying for it.
What you get
Not a support inbox. A named person who knows how your setup is wired and is responsible for keeping it useful.
Hosting and uptime
Your tools run on infrastructure we manage and monitor. If something goes down, we know before you do, and it's our problem to fix.
Fixes and maintenance
Bugs, broken integrations, edge cases nobody anticipated. Reported or caught by us, either way they get handled without a new quote.
Model and API updates
AI tools sit on top of models and services that change on someone else's schedule. We track those changes and update your systems before they break.
Ongoing improvements
Real usage shows what the first version got wrong. We tune prompts, fix the answers that miss, and add what people keep asking for.
Reporting you can read
What the tools handled, what they escalated, where they struggled. Written so you can act on it, not a dashboard you'll never open.
Someone who knows your setup
No ticket queue and no re-explaining your business every time. The person who built it is the person who maintains it.
The difference
Versus hiring
No salary, no recruiting, no ramp.
An AI engineer is a six-figure salary plus benefits, and you have to find one who'll join a small business. A retainer covers the same maintenance and improvement work for a fraction of that, and starts this month.
Versus a one-off build
The tool is still working next year.
A project has an end date. Your business doesn't. Managed work is what stands between a tool that compounds in value and one that quietly stops being used.
Versus doing it yourself
You get your evenings back.
You can learn to maintain this. Plenty of owners do. The question is whether the hours are worth more spent here or spent on the work that actually makes you money.
New to the term? We wrote a plain-English explainer on what managed AI services actually means and who genuinely needs them.
How it works
Review
A look at what you're running: what works, what's broken, and what you're still doing by hand. If you have nothing yet, we start with what's worth building first.
Build or take over
A fixed-price build if it's new, a handover review if it already exists. Either way it ends up somewhere we can monitor and support it properly.
Run it
Monitoring, fixes, updates, and improvements on a monthly plan. Reporting you can actually read, and a person to call. Cancel whenever.
Pricing
Founding rates shown. Standard rates apply after our first 5 clients. Founding rates are grandfathered for as long as you stay.
Care
Low-touch upkeep
$250
Hosting, uptime monitoring, bug fixes, and email support for one live tool.
Operate
Active maintenance
$750
Everything in Care, plus monthly build hours, reporting, and strategy calls.
Embedded
Ongoing AI partner
$2,000+
Everything in Operate, plus weekly sessions and a fractional AI lead on your team.
Plans cover maintenance and improvement of tools that already exist. New builds are quoted separately and at a fixed price, so a retainer never turns into an open meter.
Proof
What we built
airquote, an AI-powered job management platform for contractors and the trades. Quoting, scheduling, invoicing, job tracking, customer comms, and payments in one system. Product, AI, and infrastructure, built from nothing.
Why it matters here
It's used daily by over 50 contractors, which means it gets monitored, maintained, and improved every week. Keeping software alive in production is the actual job, and it's the same discipline we apply to a managed plan.
FAQ
What are managed AI services?
One team builds your AI tools and then keeps running them. Hosting, uptime monitoring, bug fixes, model and API updates, and ongoing improvements, instead of handing over a finished project and walking away. The name comes from managed IT services, and the logic is the same.
How much does it cost?
Plans start at $250 a month for hosting, monitoring, fixes, and support on one live tool. $750 adds monthly build hours, reporting, and strategy calls. There's no contract, so if it isn't earning its keep you stop paying.
Do I need this, or is a one-off build enough?
If the tool is simple, rarely used, and nothing it depends on changes, a one-off build is fine and we'll tell you so. Managed services earn their keep when the tool is part of how you actually run the business, because AI sits on models and APIs that change on someone else's schedule.
Is this cheaper than hiring someone?
Considerably. A full-time AI engineer in Denver is a six-figure salary plus benefits, plus the months it takes to find one willing to join a small business. A retainer covers the maintenance and improvement work without the hire.
Will you manage AI tools you didn't build?
Sometimes. It depends on how it was built and whether we can support it responsibly. We'll review what you have and tell you honestly whether taking it over makes sense, or whether rebuilding one weak piece first is the better move.
Do you only work with Denver businesses?
We're Denver based and most clients are on the Front Range. Managed work happens over calls and shared dashboards though, so location isn't a limit.
30-minute call. No sales pitch. We'll look at what you're running, what's likely to break, and whether a plan is worth it for you.
Get started →