Alternatives
AI Employee vs. hiring an admin
A good admin costs $4,300 a month after payroll taxes, benefits, and the hiring cycle you will repeat in 18 months. Most of what fills their day is process work. Process work is software now.
Architecture
Where the work actually happens
Hiring is one way to get the work done. It is worth being precise about what you are actually buying with each option.
ChatGPT on their screen
Give an admin ChatGPT and you have a faster typist. The intelligence is rented and identical for everyone; the process still lives in one person's head, on one shift, one task at a time.
DIY automation
Zapier chains, spreadsheets, a developer on retainer. You become the systems integrator: wiring tools, writing rules, fixing what breaks. Possible, but it is a second job on top of running the business.
AskEleven
Your process written into XI-Code as workflows, rules, and permission scopes. It cannot resign, and it does not live in anyone's head. We build it, watch it, and tune it. That is what the retainer is.
The AI thinks. XI-Code executes.
Side by side
The salary vs. the software
| Full-time admin | AskEleven Employee | |
|---|---|---|
| Real monthly cost | $4,300+ loaded: $40k salary plus taxes, benefits, PTO, and turnover amortized in. | From $850 flat. |
| Hours covered | 40 a week, minus PTO and sick days. | 168 a week, including 2 AM. |
| Time to productive | 4-6 weeks of training, done by you. | Working in days, built by us. |
| When they quit | Restart the whole cycle, at roughly $4,700 average cost per hire. | Nothing to quit. The process is code. |
| Errors | Untracked, discovered later. | Logged, auditable, escalated by rule. |
| Task capacity | One thing at a time. | Every inquiry, every follow-up, in parallel. |
A W-2 hire costs $5,299/mo loaded. The eleventh employee starts at $850, works around the clock, and never quits.
When the human is the right call
If the job is physically greeting guests, handling money in person, or making judgment calls on exceptions all day, hire the person. Some roles are human roles.
An AI Employee replaces the hours they burn on follow-up, scheduling, data entry, and inbox triage. Plenty of our clients keep the human and give the process work to the AI. Hire humans for judgment. Put software on the process. That is usually the smartest configuration.
Ask us how much it is allowed to do on its own. We publish the levels we hold ourselves to, L0 to L5, so you can put the same question to anyone else you are weighing up and compare the answers. Read the standard
Make the next hire the eleventh.
Pick a role, connect your tools, and put an employee on the work that keeps falling through the cracks. Working in days, month to month, 30-day guarantee.
Hire an AI Employee