Where most chatbots are
A chatbot is only as good as what it knows and what it's allowed to say. We ground answers in your own content, test them on real questions before launch and keep them inside clear limits. Our team built the chat and voice coaching in an AI product for employees, end to end, in 6 weeks.
What goes into a chatbot people trust
Grounded in your content
Answers come from your docs, help centre or data, with the source passed to the model. When nothing relevant comes back, it says so instead of making something up.
Part of the product
A chatbot works best inside your product, next to the screens and data users already have, not in a widget bolted on later. We build it into the app, on its accounts and data.
Privacy decided early
Decide early what the bot stores, who can see it and what never leaves the chat. Managers can see patterns across conversations without anyone's own words being exposed.
Tested before launch
We test on the real questions your users ask, including the awkward ones, and track how often answers are right, so it earns the trust of your users from the very first conversation.
How it works
- 01
Scope the first version (week 1)
On free calls we agree what the chatbot must answer and fix scope and price before you pay. Week 1: data and tests.
- 02
Build and test (weeks 2-5)
Retrieval, chat and guardrails, tested on real questions every week. The engineer building it is the one on your calls.
- 03
Launch and support (week 6 on)
We ship to production, hand over the code, docs and credentials, and stay on for 6 weeks of support as real chats come in.
Starting at $12,000
A first chatbot is an MVP Sprint: fixed scope and fixed price, agreed before the build. Adding a chatbot to a live product? Hire AI developers on a retainer.
Talk to an AI engineer We came to Zeroic for one fixed-scope build and never left. 
built the AI into WordUp and kept finding more worth shipping - we doubled our retainer hours inside the first month. He tells us what's worth building before he builds it.
Work we've shipped
AI · HR Tech
Liya AI
An AI coaching companion for employees, with chat and voice coaching, built end to end by us in 6 weeks.
AI · Analytics
Better Analyst (formerly FormulaBot)
An analytics app used by 1.5M+ people. We built the AI that answers plain-English questions about data.
AI · EdTech
QuizBot
AI that turns any text or URL into quizzes, with wrong answers that make sense. 2,500+ users, then acquired.
How we can help
Four ways to work with us - pick what fits, switch when it doesn’t.
Audits
Find what's broken - or whether AI is worth it - before you build.
Learn moreMVP Sprint
Zero to production in 5-6 weeks. A real product, not a prototype.
Learn moreRetainer
A senior engineer embedded on your team, month to month.
Learn moreCode Rescue
Vibe-coded app breaking under real users? We rebuild it to hold.
Learn moreFAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much does a custom AI chatbot cost?
A first version starts at $12,000 as a fixed-price MVP Sprint, live in 5-6 weeks. We agree scope and price before you pay anything. Adding a chatbot to a live product can also run on a retainer, from $4,000 a month.
When is a custom chatbot worth it?
When it needs your product data, your own logic or privacy rules that hosted tools cannot meet. That is where a custom build pays for itself.
How do you stop it making things up?
By answering from retrieved content, telling it to say when it does not know, and testing on real questions before launch. We keep checking quality after launch too.
Which AI models do you use?
OpenAI, Anthropic Claude or open models, chosen per task by quality, cost and speed. We build it so the model can be swapped later.
Do we own everything you build?
Yes, 100%. You own the code, prompts, data pipelines, docs and credentials.
