AI assistant or hiring: which is right for a small business?

Two answers to two different needs

Hiring means bringing a person into your business: someone who learns your trade, adapts to the unexpected, meets your customers and takes initiative. An AI assistant takes on precise, repetitive tasks, always in the same way, according to your rules.

So the real question is not ‘one or the other?’, but ‘what do I need first?’. To answer it, let’s look at the real costs, then at what each one does well.

What hiring costs in France, according to official sources

The starting point is the minimum wage. According to Service Public (in French), the gross SMIC (French minimum wage) is €1,867.02 per month for a full-time job, or €22,404.20 per year.

Employer contributions are added to this salary. The official URSSAF simulator (in French), in its July 2026 version and with its default settings, gives:

• for an employee paid the SMIC: a total employer cost of about €1,988 per month, or about €23,853 per year;
• for a gross salary of €2,700 per month, the figure the simulator offers as the median salary: about €3,507 per month, or about €42,083 per year.

The simulator points out that it does not take collective agreements or business support schemes into account: run your own calculation with your own settings. Other costs usually come on top, varying from case to case: recruitment, training, equipment, software.

What an AI assistant like Alex costs

At Work Without Me, modules and packs are paid once. The complete pack, which takes on seven sales tasks (emails, follow-ups, appointments, quotes and payment, invoicing, delivery, after-sales support), costs €2,797 instead of €3,576 (save €779, −22%). The Deluxe pack with the AI phone agent costs €3,757 instead of €5,573 (save €1,816, −33%).

For hosting, there are two plans:

• Standard: you have your own n8n account, the tool that carries out Alex’s tasks, and you pay for your usage directly to n8n, with no Work Without Me subscription;
• Fully managed: we host everything for you, for a subscription of €149, €390 or €1,490 per month depending on your volume, usage included.

Stripe payment fees remain separate. All prices: VAT not applicable, art. 293 B of the French General Tax Code (CGI). The details are in the Pricing section.

What Alex does well

Alex is Work Without Me’s AI sales agent, always presented as an AI. He is at ease with everything that repeats and follows rules:

• answering enquiries received by email, with your prices and your tone;
• following up leads and quotes that have gone unanswered, then stopping as soon as they reply;
• offering the real free slots in your calendar;
• preparing accurate quotes and sending the payment link;
• invoicing after a verified payment and delivering the agreed files;
• answering common questions after the sale.

He does it consistently, including when you are in a meeting or out on a job.

What always needs a human

An AI assistant does not make the decisions, and that is not its role. A person remains essential for:

• the big decisions: taking on a project, setting a price outside your price list, turning a customer down;
• negotiations and special terms;
• sensitive situations: complaints, disputes, refunds;
• the relationship of trust that is built by meeting in person;
• your trade itself.

At Work Without Me, this is exactly how we work: Alex takes on the repetitive sales tasks, and I keep the meetings, the important decisions and the relationship with our customers, whom I meet in Paris and Île-de-France.

When hiring is still the best choice

An AI assistant is not right for everything. Hiring is often the right decision when:

• the need is on the ground: on-site jobs, physical deliveries, welcoming customers;
• the work calls for judgement every day, situations that are always different, creativity;
• you need someone to grow the business: prospecting face to face, negotiating with large accounts, leading a team;
• your workload already justifies a full role.

In these cases, an AI assistant is still useful, but as a complement: it takes on the repetitive tasks, and the person you hire focuses on what really needs a human.

How to choose, in practice

1. List your tasks for the week and separate the ones that repeat from the ones that need your judgement.
2. Estimate the time the repetitive tasks take: that is what an AI assistant can take over.
3. Look at what remains: if it is a real role, with work on the ground, relationships and decisions, hiring is the answer.
4. Compare the costs with the URSSAF simulator and our prices, taking into account what each one really does.
5. Start small: a single module first, or a first part-time role, then adjust.

Frequently asked questions

To go further: the 7 tasks that eat up a small business owner’s time, what an AI assistant can really do, and the Paris and Île-de-France page to meet us.