Ease AIMost chatbot projects take two to three weeks. The AI itself is usually ready in days. Everything else takes longer.
I'm going to walk you through what happens in each week of a typical build, then name the two things that actually cause delays. Neither is the technology.
Week one: discovery and answer design
The first week is spent working out what the chatbot needs to say and where it needs to pull information from.
You'll typically spend:
- Day 1-2: Listing the questions customers actually ask. Not the questions you wish they'd ask. The ones that come through your phone, your contact form, your front desk.
- Day 3-4: Writing or approving answers. This is where most projects slow down. You know your business. I don't. If you sell industrial parts and someone asks about lead times for custom orders, I need you to tell me the answer. If it depends on the material or the quantity, I need to know that too.
- Day 5: Identifying where the chatbot should pull live data. Your booking system, your inventory, your CRM. Some of these integrate in an afternoon. Some require an API key you'll need to request from your software vendor.
By the end of week one, we have a documented list of intents, a first draft of answers, and a list of integrations that need to happen.
Week two: build and testing
This is where the chatbot gets built and tested against real scenarios.
- Day 6-8: I build the bot, connect it to your data sources, and set up the handoff rules. If someone asks for a refund or escalates, the bot needs to know when to stop talking and get you involved.
- Day 9-10: You test it. I'll give you a private link. You'll ask it questions. Some answers will be wrong or incomplete. You'll tell me. I'll fix them.
The bottleneck here is almost always getting access to your systems. If you use a common platform — Shopify, HubSpot, Calendly — integration is straightforward. If you use a proprietary system or something built in-house, I'll need API documentation and credentials. That can add days, sometimes a week, if your IT provider or software vendor is slow to respond.
Week three: deployment and handover
The final week is deployment, training, and making sure you know how to manage it.
- Day 11-12: The bot goes live, usually in a limited rollout. Maybe just on one page, or only during business hours.
- Day 13-14: I walk you through the admin panel. How to read the conversation logs. How to add a new answer. How to adjust the handoff rules if you're getting too many or too few escalations.
By day 14, the chatbot is live and you're running it.
What makes projects slip
I've built enough of these to know where delays happen. It's never the AI.
Sign-off on answers
The single biggest delay is waiting for you to approve or correct the answers. This is not a criticism. You're running a business. Reviewing a spreadsheet of chatbot responses is not urgent compared to the fifteen other things you're handling that day.
But if I send you a draft on Tuesday and you review it the following Monday, the project has slipped a week. If you approve answers in principle but ask for revisions three days later after talking to your team, we've slipped again.
The projects that finish on time are the ones where someone on your side is assigned to review answers within 24 hours. It doesn't have to be you. It has to be someone who knows the business and has the authority to say yes.
Access to integrations
The second delay is getting API keys, login credentials, or technical documentation for the systems the chatbot needs to connect to.
If you're on Shopify and you need the bot to check inventory, I can have that working in an hour. If you're on a custom-built ERP system and your developer is on holiday, I'm waiting until they're back.
If you use a booking system and the API is gated behind an enterprise plan you don't have, you'll need to either upgrade or accept that the bot can't book appointments — it can only link to your booking page.
This is also not a criticism. But it's real. And it's worth checking before you start the project.
When it takes longer
Some projects take four to six weeks. That's normal if:
- You're building multiple chatbots for different parts of the business (sales, support, HR).
- You need the bot to interact with several internal systems, each requiring separate integration work.
- You're in a regulated industry and answers need legal or compliance review before going live.
Our multi-workflow builds are priced at $8,000-$20,000 and typically run four to six weeks for this reason.
When you shouldn't build one at all
If you get fewer than ten enquiries a week, you probably don't need a chatbot. The time you'd spend reviewing answers and maintaining it exceeds the time you'd save.
If your business changes frequently — new products every month, pricing that shifts with the market, policies that update every quarter — a chatbot becomes a maintenance burden. Every change means updating the bot. If you're not willing to do that, the bot will give outdated answers, which is worse than no bot at all.
If most of your customer questions require judgement or negotiation, a chatbot won't help. It can answer questions. It can't make decisions.
Ontario funding that applies
If you're an Ontario business, DMAP can cover up to $15,000 at 50% match towards hiring a consultant to build your digital adoption plan, which can include chatbot implementation. You'll need 1-499 full-time employees and a letter of support from a Digital Adoption Consultant. General roster applications are closed, but the Ontario Centre of Innovation permits case-by-case approval of a consultant you identify yourself.
Retail businesses with a physical storefront, 1-50 employees, and over $100,000 in revenue may qualify for RMPG, which provides up to $5,000 at 50% match. You can't combine RMPG with DMAP.
More detail is on the Ontario AI grants page.
What happens after launch
Most clients add optional monthly support at $500-$2,000 per month, billed month-to-month. That covers answer updates, new integrations, and adjustments as your business changes.
Some run the chatbot themselves and contact me when something breaks or they want to add a feature. Both work.
Next step
If you'd like a chatbot built, the pricing page lists what's included in a standard build. If you'd like to talk through your specific situation first, email info@easeaiworks.com. Enquiries reach me directly.