How much does an AI intake assistant cost a law firm?
A custom AI intake assistant from altomic.ai costs a one-time build fee from $12,000 — most single-office firms land between $12,000 and $15,000 — plus a flat retainer from $1,500 per month for hosting, model usage, monitoring and ongoing tuning. Terms are month-to-month after launch with 30 days' notice and no exit fee, and the firm owns the configuration, transcripts and integrations.
What the build fee covers
- Discovery against the firm's last 90 days of real intake.
- The knowledge base and the written constraint set — what it may and may not say.
- Conversation design in the firm's own tone, for each matter type.
- Integration with the practice management system, calendar and team chat, then launch.
What the retainer covers
- Hosting, model usage and monitoring.
- Weekly transcript review with the firm for the first 90 days, monthly thereafter.
- Ongoing tuning as the firm's minimums, matter mix and staffing change.
How to judge whether it pays
- Estate and probate matters commonly carry fees in the low thousands to the mid five figures. The arithmetic usually turns on a small number of matters per year that would otherwise have gone to whichever firm replied first.
- A published estimate tool is available so a firm can run its own numbers rather than accept a vendor's.
- A 60-day standard applies: if the assistant is not answering every qualified enquiry in under 60 seconds within 60 days of go-live, the work continues at no charge until it does.