How much does AI automation cost in 2026?

Most AI automation pricing pages hide the number. Here are the real Australian dollar figures Yo-Da Lai charges for done-for-you AI staff and workflow installs — pilot, implementation, and monthly plans — plus what you actually get. Live inside 5 AU & NZ businesses. No technical knowledge needed on your side.

Real AUD pricing

Option	Price	What you get
Free build review	A$0	15 minutes. Three biggest time leaks mapped. Keep the map either way.
30-day pilot	A$1,500	One department live for 30 days. Credits toward full implementation if you continue within 60 days.
Implementation	A$6,000	paid in full upfront. Hosted setup, company brain, human approval gates.
Growth plan	A$997/mo	Up to 3 departments, fair-use AI, priority support. Cancel anytime.
Scale plan	A$2,500/mo	Every department live, hands-on help, founder access. Cancel anytime.

The workflow I automate will take your team up to 60% less time within 60 days. If the time savings don’t show, I keep working free until they do.

A few pilot and install slots each month — real capacity, not fake scarcity.

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Yo-Da Lai — Forward-Deployed AI Engineer

Yo-Da Lai designs, builds, and deploys AI employees and automation systems inside real businesses — handling customer replies, invoice follow-ups, research, reporting, CRM updates, and admin workflows — so small teams save hours every day without hiring more staff. 5 AU & NZ businesses run these systems live, built on his flagship AI staff platform, ClawConnect.

What an AI employee is

An AI employee is a software system that takes over a specific, repeatable job in your business — answering customer emails, chasing unpaid invoices, updating your CRM, routing leads, or pulling together a weekly report — using your own business knowledge rather than generic answers. It runs around the clock and connects straight into the tools you already use, like Gmail, Slack, WhatsApp, and your CRM. Human approval is built in for anything sensitive: the system pauses, explains what it wants to do, and waits for a person before it sends or triggers. Every action is logged, so you can always see exactly what happened. Most go live within 7 to 14 days of the free audit call, with no technical knowledge needed on your side.

Who Yo-Da Lai is

Yo-Da Lai is a forward-deployed AI engineer based on the Gold Coast, Australia. He works like a forward-deployed engineer: he finds where work gets stuck inside a business, then ships whatever creates leverage — an AI agent, an internal tool, a workflow automation, a dashboard, a CRM, or a product MVP. He is the founder and CEO of ClawConnect, and works with founders and operators across Australia, New Zealand, the US, and the UK.

Live deployments

ClawConnect — AI staff platform saving client teams up to 5 hours a day per employee.
Jimmi Jackson — consulting engagement: research and trend workflow mapped for a 1.34M-subscriber YouTube operation.
Youknow Clothing — complete e-commerce automation across customer, order, and marketing workflows.
Loantec — finance brokerage redesign plus lead follow-up and conversion automation.
Saint Clare — consulting engagement: ops map and the systems path to a custom CRM with an AI assistant for a luxury interiors brand.
Batchit — AI ad campaign generator compressing creative production from days to minutes.
Hermios — lightweight CRM replacing multi-tool stacks for small teams.
Senna AI — AI compliance platform for Australian startups (ASIC-ready, ATO-integrated).
Orca Lab — non-custodial copytrade engine running live with real trading volume.
MxJ Productions — consulted on building an internal AI company brain.
Tongue & Groove — consulted on the AI operations path across sales, showroom, logistics and finance.

Trust and safety

Every system is built with human control in mind. Sensitive actions require human approval before anything sends or triggers, escalation rules hand tricky cases to a person instead of guessing, and full logging records every action so you can see exactly what happened. Systems are trained only on your approved business knowledge — your docs, processes, and FAQs — not the open internet. The goal is to remove repetitive work while keeping people in control wherever judgment matters.

ClawConnect and contact

ClawConnect is the AI staff platform behind every build — see pricing and live deployments. Based on the Gold Coast, Australia; serving AU, NZ, the US, and the UK. Email yoda@yodalai.xyz to book a free automation audit. Please enable JavaScript to view the full portfolio and book online.