The verdict in three sentences
A useful B2B AI chatbot isn't a gadget that makes up answers: it's a RAG assistant anchored to your knowledge base, which deflects 30 to 50 % of tier-1 tickets and cleanly escalates the rest. The project costs 12,000 to 40,000 EUR excl. VAT and 150 to 900 EUR/month of API depending on volume, for a deployment in 6 to 10 weeks. Success rests on three things: knowledge base quality, anti-hallucination guardrails, and frictionless human escalation.
Cost by ticket volume
Running cost depends mostly on the number of conversations handled. Here are the 2026 orders of magnitude.
| Monthly volume | Expected deflection | API cost/month | Tickets avoided/month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 tickets | 30-40 % | 150 – 300 EUR | 150 – 200 |
| 1,500 tickets | 35-45 % | 300 – 500 EUR | 525 – 675 |
| 3,000 tickets | 40-50 % | 500 – 700 EUR | 1,200 – 1,500 |
| 6,000 tickets | 40-50 % | 700 – 900 EUR | 2,400 – 3,000 |
| 10,000+ tickets | 45-55 % | 900 – 1,500 EUR | 4,500+ |
At ~6 EUR fully-loaded cost per human-handled ticket, each 1,000 deflected tickets represents around 6,000 EUR/month of savings or restored capacity.
Project budget and ROI
The setup budget depends on knowledge base complexity and integrations (CRM, article base, ticketing).
| Scope | Project budget (EUR excl. VAT) | Timeline | Estimated annual savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enriched FAQ MVP (RAG) | 12,000 – 18,000 | 4-6 wks | 25,000 – 45,000 EUR |
| Assistant + escalation + CRM | 18,000 – 30,000 | 6-8 wks | 45,000 – 90,000 EUR |
| Multichannel + advanced guardrails | 30,000 – 40,000 | 8-10 wks | 90,000 – 180,000 EUR |
| Maintenance + retraining | 3,000 – 8,000/yr | — | — |
ROI is rarely below 3x over 18 months once volume exceeds 1,500 tickets/month, provided the knowledge base stays up to date.
Mini case study
Thomas, customer support director at a 60-person B2B SaaS vendor in Paris, handles 2,800 tickets/month with 5 agents. He deploys a RAG assistant for 26,000 EUR excl. VAT and 550 EUR/month of API. Deflection reaches 42 %, i.e. ~1,176 tickets absorbed. At 6 EUR/ticket, savings are ~7,000 EUR/month, i.e. 84,000 EUR/year — net of API, 77,400 EUR. The project pays off in under 5 months, and agents focus on complex, high-value cases.
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FAQ
Can the chatbot make up answers?
The risk exists, but RAG strongly reduces it: the AI only answers from your documents and cites its sources. We add guardrails (confidence threshold, "I don't know" responses, escalation) to block fabrications.
What happens to cases the AI can't handle?
They're escalated to a human agent with the full conversation context. The goal is to absorb repetitive tier-1, not to remove human support.
Is it GDPR compliant?
Yes: EU hosting, data minimization, no training on your conversations without consent, and configurable purge. We document the processing for your register.
How long to go live?
A RAG MVP on your FAQ is deliverable in 4-6 weeks. The CRM- and ticketing-integrated version takes 6 to 10 weeks depending on your systems.
Do we need a lot of content to start?
A base of 50 to 150 well-structured articles is enough for a first scope. Quality beats quantity: 80 up-to-date articles are better than 500 obsolete ones.
Let's scope your project. Give us your ticket volume, your channels and the state of your knowledge base: we'll frame a compliant RAG assistant between 12,000 and 40,000 EUR excl. VAT with a costed ROI. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
