A realistic timeline from first conversation to a working custom AI agent in production.
The short answer
A scoped custom AI agent typically moves from first meeting to working pilot in a few weeks: plan, map needs, demo on your work, business case, terms, procurement and kickoff.
Key takeaways
Plan, map needs and see a working agent on your own workflow. This de-risks everything after.
Business case, price and terms, references and procurement. Larger companies spend most time here.
Sign the shared scope and book the kickoff. Vendors such as Switch offer short intro calls to map a timeline.
Unclear ownership, data access and procurement.
Involve IT and procurement from week one.
How this guide was made
Written and reviewed by our editors against vendor documentation, public regulation texts and practitioner interviews. We update guides when products or rules change. Tools mentioned may have a commercial relationship with this site; this never decides what we recommend.
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