Is an AI agent cheaper than hiring someone to answer messages?
Hiring someone at minimum wage costs the company COP 2,715,490 a month in Colombia and covers 42 hours a week. A OnePeak digital employee covers all 168 and is quoted to fit your volume and your channels. But a digital employee and a person don't do the same job.
Prices and spec sheets consulted on
Side by side
| OnePeak | A person on payroll | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost to the company | Quoted to fit | COP 2,715,490 with statutory benefits and payroll contributions[1] |
| Hours covered per week | 168 — all of them | 42, the maximum legal workweek[1] |
| Cost per hour covered | Quoted to fit | COP 14,920[1] |
| Simultaneous conversations | many, with no queue | one |
| Vacation, sick leave, turnover | not applicable | 15 working days of vacation per year, plus sick leave and replacements[2] |
| Understands a case it has never seen | no: it hands off to a person | yes, and that's the reason a person is needed |
| Setup | our team implements it with your information, on the timeline set in writing in the proposal | posting the job, hiring and training |
Where we don't win
This doesn't replace the people you already have
The math above doesn't say “fire your receptionist.” It says that the 126 hours a week nobody covers today have a cost, and that covering them doesn't take another payroll. Whoever answers from 8 to 6 is still needed at 9 in the morning.
A person solves what isn't written down
The digital employee answers with what the business loaded into it and hands off the rest. An unusual case, an angry customer, an exception someone has to approve: that's human work, and the employee is built to pass it on, not to paper over it.
Cost per hour isn't the only calculation
A person does many things besides answering: takes payments, straightens up, handles things at the counter. If your problem is that you're short-handed, hiring is still the answer. If the problem is that WhatsApp is left unattended, it isn't.
Frequently asked questions
Does an AI agent replace an employee?
No, and OnePeak doesn't sell it that way. It covers the hours nobody covers today — nights, weekends, the midday peak — and hands off to a person everything that falls outside what it knows. Whoever works the counter is still needed.
How much does a minimum-wage employee cost a Colombian company?
COP 2,715,490 a month in 2026, counting statutory benefits, social security and payroll contributions. The worker receives COP 1,750,905 plus COP 249,095 in transportation allowance, and the maximum legal workweek is 42 hours.
How does the cost per hour compare?
A minimum-wage employee costs COP 14,920 per hour covered, counting what the company pays, and covers 42 of the 168 hours in the week. The digital employee covers all 168 and is quoted to fit —an initial implementation plus a monthly fee, depending on the package, the channels and the volume—, so the per-hour math is done with your quote in hand.
What won't the agent do?
It doesn't decide on exceptions, it doesn't negotiate, it doesn't work the counter and it doesn't solve anything the business didn't load into it. When something falls outside what it knows, it says so and hands the conversation to a person instead of improvising an answer.
When is hiring the better choice?
When the problem is that you're short-handed and not that you're short on coverage. If you need someone who also takes payments, keeps the store in order or handles things in person, hire someone. If you're losing the messages that come in at night and on Sunday, you don't need someone on payroll for that.
Where the numbers come from
- Minimum wage and employer labour cost in Colombia, 2026Monthly minimum wage of 1,750,905 pesos plus a transport allowance of 249,095. The cost to the employer, including benefits, social security and payroll taxes, is 2,715,490 pesos a month. Legal maximum working week of 42 hours as of 15 July 2026. https://www.mintrabajo.gov.co/
- Código Sustantivo del Trabajo (Colombian Labour Code), article 186Fifteen consecutive business days of paid holiday for each year of service. https://www.funcionpublica.gov.co/eva/gestornormativo/norma.php?i=33104
- Oldroyd, McElheran and Elkington — “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads”, Harvard Business Review 89(3), March 2011Audit of 2,241 companies in the United States: the average response to an online lead took 42 hours, and 23% of the companies never responded at all. https://hbr.org/2011/03/the-short-life-of-online-sales-leads
Want to see what it would do for your business?
Quoted to fit your package, your channels and your volume. Book a meeting, or watch a demo with your own business first.
Updated: 2026-10-17