Hire an AI development team for retail automation
Named engineers who build AI agents for catalogues, marketplace listings, customer service and returns, working in your store, ERP and marketplace accounts. Start with one workflow and a two-week trial.
Updated
Catalogue work first
Bulk listings and updates across storefronts and marketplaces, from one product record.
From $25 an hour
Developers at $25/h and AI engineers at $45/h, billed hourly or monthly.
You choose the people
Two named profiles in 48 hours. You interview them before anyone starts.
What can an AI development team automate in retail?
The repetitive work around your products and orders: writing and updating listings across channels, keeping price and stock in sync, answering where-is-my-order questions, handling returns, and flagging reorders. Each workflow gets its own agent, connected to your systems, with rules for what a person approves.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
| Workflow | What the agent does | Systems | What a person approves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catalogue and listing automation | Turns supplier data into a listing for each channel, with that channel's title length, attributes and category | Supplier files, PIM, ERP, store platform, marketplaces | Listings before they are published |
| Bulk catalogue updates | Applies price, stock and content changes across every storefront from one record, and checks each channel's rules first | PIM or ERP, store platform, marketplaces | Large or unusual changes, by rule |
| Customer service | Tracks orders, answers sizing, stock and delivery questions, and resolves payment failures | Store platform, help desk, carriers | Anything outside your policy |
| Returns and exchanges | Starts returns, offers a better-fitting alternative first, generates labels and triggers refunds within your rules | Order system, payment provider, carriers | Refunds outside your policy |
| Stock and reordering | Monitors stock, forecasts demand, proposes reorders and reconciles ERP, POS and warehouse data | ERP, POS, warehouse system | Purchase orders |
| Trade and wholesale orders | Finds parts by specification or serial number, applies contract prices and turns requests for quotation into quotes | ERP, price lists, CRM | Custom and engineered orders |
These are typical set-ups, agreed with you before any build. Results depend on your catalogue and your data, so we set success criteria with you rather than quoting a percentage.
Why start with catalogue and listing automation?
Because the rules are clear, the data is yours and the result is easy to check. Every marketplace publishes its limits, every listing either passes or fails validation, and the work repeats across thousands of products. That makes it a good first agent, and the same product record then feeds your other channels.
The rules also keep changing, which makes manual work expensive. From 27 July 2026, Amazon requires product titles of 75 characters or fewer in every category except media, with detail moving to an Item Highlights field of up to 125 characters (Amazon). eBay allows 80 characters (eBay). Google Merchant Center allows 150, though shoppers usually notice only the first 70 or fewer (Google). An agent holds each channel's rules as settings, so a change like Amazon's becomes a configuration update and a reviewed bulk rewrite.
AI shopping raises the stakes. OpenAI lets merchants send ChatGPT a regularly refreshed product feed, and richer attributes improve ranking (OpenAI). The same record that produces your marketplace listings can produce those feeds. Our listing automation guide has the full detail and sources.
If you sell on one channel and can work through your catalogue product by product, the free AI tools your marketplace or store includes are often enough, and we will say so. A team earns its cost when you sell on several channels, start from supplier spreadsheets or manage thousands of SKUs and variants.
Our rates
Published prices in US dollars. Monthly plans are 160 hours, about 15% below the hourly rate.
Mid-level developer
3 to 5 years
$25 / hour
$3,400 a month (160 h)
Senior developer
6 or more years
$35 / hour
$4,750 a month (160 h)
AI / LLM engineer
Agents, RAG, IBM watsonx
$45 / hour
$6,100 a month (160 h)
Senior AI engineer
Leads AI architecture and delivery
$60 / hour
$8,150 a month (160 h)
Two-week trial with the developer you choose. No charge if you stop within the first five working days. US Eastern clients get 09:00 to 12:00 US Eastern time through an evening shift, at 15% extra. Full pricing and comparisons.
Who is on a retail automation AI team, and what does it cost?
Usually a senior AI engineer to lead, an AI / LLM engineer to build the agents, and a developer for store and ERP integrations. On monthly plans of 160 hours each, that example team costs $17,650 a month. You can start smaller: hourly plans begin at 80 hours a month.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
| Role | What they do on a retail project | Hourly | Monthly (160 hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior AI engineer | Designs the agents, the evaluation and the guardrails, and owns the path to production | $60 | $8,150 |
| AI / LLM engineer | Builds the agents, the product data pipeline and the checks against each channel's rules | $45 | $6,100 |
| Senior developer | Owns a larger integration end to end, such as an ERP or a custom store | $35 | $4,750 |
| Mid-level developer | Connects store platforms and marketplaces, and builds review screens for your team | $25 | $3,400 |
The example team is an illustration, not a quote. UK prices run from £20 to £48 an hour. Model usage and hosting are billed by the provider to whoever owns the account, usually you.
Our AI agent cost guide sets out what a first agent costs by type, and pricing has every rate in dollars and pounds.
Which retail systems does the team work with?
Store platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Magento, marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay and Walmart, and any platform with a public API or a bulk-feed format. The team also works with your ERP, PIM and POS, and with supplier spreadsheets as they arrive.
- You do not replace your PIM, ERP or store. The agent reads from the systems you already use and writes to your channels through their APIs or bulk-feed formats.
- Custom connectors can be built for private systems.
- Product feeds for Google Merchant Center and ChatGPT come from the same product record as your marketplace listings.
- Customer-facing agents can run on your website, WhatsApp, email and voice: see channels and integrations.
How do you start with a hired retail AI team?
With one workflow and a trial. Tell us the role and your catalogue, and we send two named engineers within 48 hours. You interview them, and they start on a two-week trial. No charge if you stop within the first five working days.
- 1
Tell us the workflow
Which channels you sell on, roughly how many products you have, and where the product data comes from today.
- 2
Choose the people
We send two named profiles within 48 hours. You interview them before anyone starts.
- 3
Trial
Two-week trial with the developer you choose. No charge if you stop within the first five working days.
- 4
Agree what success looks like
For example, the share of listings that pass validation first time on a sample of your own catalogue.
- 5
Build in your accounts
The team works in your repositories and tickets, joins your stand-ups and tests on a sample before anything touches a live listing.
- 6
Widen
Add the next channel or workflow once the first one runs well.
UK teams get 09:00 to 13:00 UK time every working day, inside a normal Indian working day, at no extra cost. US teams can have 09:00 to 12:00 US Eastern time through an evening shift, at 15% extra. Our guide to how a two-week trial works covers what to test in the first ten days.
Can the team start from a pre-trained retail agent?
Yes, where one fits. The Bot Store has five retail agents for customer-facing work, and adapting one is usually faster than starting from nothing. Catalogue and listing work is more specific to your data, so it is usually a custom build.
E-commerce
Finds products, tracks orders, and handles returns and refunds.
→ Read more
Fashion
Style discovery, size and fit advice, and exchanges.
→ Read more
Furniture
Room-based discovery, delivery and assembly, and after-sales.
→ Read more
Grocery and quick commerce
List-to-basket, substitutions and missing-item refunds.
→ Read more
Industrial distribution
Part-number search, contract pricing and quotes.
→ Read more
See the retail Bot Store, or read about AI agents for retail customer service.
How is our customer and sales data protected?
Access is limited to what the work needs, in accounts you control. Code goes into your repositories, the IP is assigned to you, and client code and data never go into public AI tools. If your data must not leave your network, the agents can run on your own servers.
- We sign your NDA before the first call.
- You own all the code: IP is assigned to you.
- Developers are named in the contract and never swapped without your agreement.
- No subcontracting without your consent.
- A person reviews all AI-assisted code, and your code never goes into public AI tools.
We hold no ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification, and our security page explains what we do instead. For data that must stay in-house, see private AI. Our guide to sharing data with an offshore AI team covers what to ask any provider.
Frequently asked questions
Can the team automate bulk catalogue updates across multiple storefronts?
Yes. One product record produces a listing for each storefront and marketplace, with that channel's title length, attributes and category. Price, stock and content changes are made once, checked against each channel's rules and pushed to all of them, with a person approving large or unusual changes.
How long does it take to automate listings?
A typical catalogue of a few thousand SKUs goes live in two to four weeks, including data mapping, tone-of-voice training and channel validation. A first agent with wider integrations typically takes six to twelve weeks. These are typical ranges, not promises.
Do we have to replace our PIM, ERP or Shopify store?
No. The agent reads from the systems you already use, such as supplier spreadsheets, ERP exports, a PIM or Shopify, and writes to your channels through their APIs or bulk-feed formats.
Is it better to hire a team or commission a project?
Hire a team if you have someone to lead the work and expect priorities to change. Commission a listing automation project if you want a defined result at a quoted price. We will say which fits.
Can we start with one workflow?
Yes, and most retailers should. Hourly plans start at 80 hours a month, so one engineer on one workflow is enough to start.
Who owns the code and the agents?
You do. Code goes into your repositories, the IP is assigned to you in the contract, and developers are named and never swapped without your agreement.
Will AI-generated listings hurt our SEO?
They should not, if they are checked. Listings are generated against your target keywords and each channel's rules, then reviewed against duplicate-content checks and approved before they are published.
Can we see how it works before committing?
Yes. You can read how each retail agent works, and the two-week trial is the real test. No charge if you stop within the first five working days.
Tell us about your catalogue
Tell us the role and when you need someone. We'll email two named engineers with their experience and availability within 48 hours, and you choose who to interview.
- No cost to receive profiles
- Two-week trial with the developer you choose. No charge if you stop within the first five working days.
- Invoiced in USD, GBP, EUR, CAD or AUD by local transfer; IP assigned to you.