Accountancy practices.
An inbox agent that reads each client email, checks the practice system, drafts the reply in the partner's voice and raises the task. AI for accountants
Home / AI agents
AI agents
AI agents that do the job, and someone to keep them working.
Norloch builds AI agents for businesses in Edinburgh and across Scotland that handle a piece of work end to end, inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google tenant, with a person approving anything that matters. Then a monthly plan keeps them running as the models, the tools and your business change.
Led by Shanoor Hussain, former Head of Managed Services at Datatonic and Global Head of Cloud Managed Services at Cloudreach. About Shanoor
Updated November 2026
In short
Norloch designs, builds and supports AI agents for small and growing businesses in Edinburgh, Scotland and the UK. An agent build is £5,000 to £15,000, fixed. Run and support is an optional monthly plan from £350, with model usage billed to your own account at cost.
Every agent is tested against your real work before it goes live, has approval steps on anything that reaches a customer or moves money, and is handed over into accounts you own.
Agent or automation
When an agent is worth it, and when it isn't.
Not every job needs an agent. If the steps are always the same, a plain automation is cheaper, faster and easier to trust.
| Automation | Agent | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | Fixed steps: when this happens, do that | Works out what's needed within limits you set, uses tools, hands back to a person |
| Good for | Filing, reminders, copying data between systems | Requests that vary: enquiries, quotes, client questions, triage |
| Build cost | £1,500 to £5,000, fixed | £5,000 to £15,000, fixed |
| Needs looking after | Rarely | Yes: models and tools change, so it needs monitoring |
Examples
Agents we build for the businesses we work with.
Trades and joinery.
An enquiry agent that asks for the missing measurements and photos, drafts a priced quote from your rates, and books the survey. Software for trades
Recruitment and care staffing.
A compliance agent that chases expiring documents, updates the CRM and flags anyone who can't be placed. Recruitment
Shops and studios.
A messaging agent across Instagram, website and email that classifies every enquiry and drafts the reply for the owner to send. The Órsona case study
How we build
Tested on your work before it touches a customer.
1
Discovery
Time with the people doing the job. We collect real examples, agree what the agent may do alone and what needs approval, and fix the price.
2
Build and test
The agent is built in your own accounts and tested against a set of your real cases until it passes, with every action logged.
3
Go live, measure, hand over
It runs on live work with a person approving. We measure the result, document it, and hand it over. Then you choose whether we keep it running.
Run and support
What keeps an agent working after go-live.
Running systems for other businesses is what Shanoor did for a decade at Cloudreach and Datatonic. The plans are optional; you own the agent either way. Model usage is billed to your own account at cost.
| Plan | Per month | Suits | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | £350 | One simple agent | Monitoring and alerts, fixes within two working days, model updates, quarterly review |
| Standard | £750 | Up to three agents, or one connected to several systems | Fixes next working day, monthly report and review, up to half a day of changes a month |
| Priority | £1,500 | Complex or customer-facing agents | Same-day response in working hours, monthly review, up to two days of changes a month |
Accountability
The business that runs the agent answers for it.
On 30 October 2026 the CMA, FCA, ICO and Ofcom said in a joint statement that an AI agent's autonomy does not diminish the responsibility of the organisation that deploys it. So every agent we build has approval steps on anything that reaches a customer or moves money, a log of what it did and why, and a written note of what data it can see.
FAQ
Common questions.
What is an AI agent, compared with an automation?
An automation follows fixed steps: when this email arrives, file it here. An agent decides what to do within limits you set: read the email, work out what it's asking, look up the client, draft the reply and the follow-up task, and ask a person before sending. If the steps never change, an automation is cheaper and we'll say so.
What does an agent build cost?
£5,000 to £15,000, fixed, agreed after a short discovery. What decides it is how many tools and systems the agent touches, how much it can do without approval, the volume of work, and how much testing it needs.
Why is there a monthly run cost?
Agents rely on AI models that change every few months, and on the tools they're connected to, which change too. Without someone watching, an agent that worked in March drifts by June. The support plan pays for monitoring, fixes and updates. Model usage is billed to your own account at cost, so you see exactly what it costs.
Do I have to take a support plan?
No. You own the agent, the accounts and the data from day one. Some clients run it themselves after handover; the plan is there for those who would rather not.
Who is responsible for what the agent does?
You are, as the business deploying it. The CMA, FCA, ICO and Ofcom said in a joint statement on 30 October 2026 that an agent's autonomy does not reduce the deploying organisation's responsibility under the law. That's why every Norloch agent has approval steps on anything that reaches a customer or moves money, and keeps a log of what it did.
Which AI models and tools do you build on?
Claude, OpenAI models or Microsoft 365 Copilot, chosen for the job, running inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google tenant and connected to the systems you already use, such as Xero, Jobber, Bullhorn or your CRM, often through n8n or Zapier.
Got a job you'd hand to an agent?
Free 30-minute call. We'll tell you whether it needs an agent, a simple automation, or neither.
Related