Piet Baudoin By Piet Baudoin, published on September 20, 2026, updated on September 26, 2026

Should I hire someone or use AI as work grows?

In brief

Whether you hire someone or use AI as work grows depends on what is growing. If retyping grows, such as email that needs to go into software, put AI alongside your people. The same team does more work. If work requiring judgment and contact grows, hire someone. Often, you need both.

What is the difference between hiring someone and AI alongside your team?

A new coworker takes over some work and brings their own judgment: they call customers, resolve exceptions, and develop their skills. An AI agent alongside your team handles recurring preparation: reading incoming work, looking up information in software, and preparing work so someone on your team only needs to approve. One adds a person. The other lets the people you already have do more work, at a higher quality.

What	Hiring someone	AI alongside your team
What it costs	Salary, employer costs, and training time	2,000 euros for three months, then 1,000 euros per month
When it works	After recruitment and training	Once the first task is set up
What it can do	Judgment, customer contact, and exceptions	Recurring retyping work: reading, looking up, preparing
If work shrinks again	A job you need to keep filled	There is less work ready. What your team taught Bombos stays in place.
Who approves	The coworker themselves, and you when in doubt	Someone on your team, using the Approve button

The choice therefore starts with counting what is growing. Read how this fits the broader question at AI in your business.

Where do you start when work grows?

You start with the work. In four steps, you can see which part of the growth needs a person and which part does not.

Count what is growing. For a week, write down what is arriving more often: email at info@, requests, weekly timesheets, or job applications. Growth often sits in one inbox, where one person opens something while another leaves it untouched.
Distributing email from a shared inbox
Look at which part is recurring. For a job application, the first reply, with a resume summary and three interview slots from the calendar, is the same type of work each time. Choosing the candidate and holding the interview are different. That is where judgment comes in.
Applicants waiting a week for a reply
Start with that recurring part. Weekly timesheets are a good example: photos, messages, and separate Excel files that someone retypes into AFAS, a major Dutch business software maker, every week. Let Bombos prepare the hour entries. Keep your people focused on checking exceptions.
Weekly timesheets arriving as photos or Excel files
Only then decide about hiring. What remains is work that requires judgment and contact. If that grows, hire someone. The checklist for their first day is another recurring task: account, phone, and information in the software.
A new coworker's first day

Do you also need more AI agents for more work? In a growing company, usually not. One AI agent waiting for your approval is cheaper and easier to follow than several agents under a coordinator. Each agent reads the file again, so you mainly pay for rereading. Every handoff is a place where work can seem finished without actually being done.

More work therefore means more tasks. After the first task, your team teaches Bombos the next one, stream by stream. You do not need technical skills. You correct a proposal, and that correction becomes the rule. A second agent only makes sense at a clear handoff in the work, such as from quote to follow-up. Even then, someone at your company signs off on the result.

What does it cost and what does it deliver?

The pilot costs 2,000 euros for the first three months, with Bombos alongside you, then 1,000 euros per month. That is less than half a day per week of the employee you would otherwise hire. You know best what another employee costs you: salary, employer costs, recruitment, and training time from an already busy coworker.

You see the benefit in the work that disappears. Nobody retypes a weekly timesheet or looks up which customer every email belongs to. The planner, administration, and office manager notice first. Their day goes into checking and deciding instead of retyping. Candidates and customers notice next, because they receive a correct answer faster.

Your company grows without paying for every growth step in extra people: more work, at a higher quality, with the same people. Read how this works for each stream in more work with the same number of people.

What does the person do?

The person decides. Bombos prepares. Every proposal has a reason and source: the email, photo, or record in the software it is based on. An entry only gets posted, or something goes out, after someone on your team clicks Approve. You can look back at every step to see what happened and why.

At first, Bombos submits everything for review. For internal work, such as looking things up, checking, and preparing, you then decide how much Bombos can do ahead of time. Customer messages and payments always wait for your approval. Read how to catch mistakes before they have consequences in mistakes and review.

A new coworker does things AI does not. They call an angry customer and know when to make a concession. They notice an agreement is wrong before it is written down. They build relationships with customers, candidates, and suppliers. If that work grows, you need a person.

Knowledge that only lives in someone's head does not have to stay there. Bombos interviews the people doing the work and records what they know so it appears as a rule in proposals.

When is AI alongside your team not the solution?

If what is growing mainly requires judgment and contact, hire someone. Think of customers who want a regular contact person, or projects that need someone on site.

If there is no email stream being entered into software by hand, there is little to prepare. If everything already happens inside the software, the software already does the work. In a very small business, there is usually too little retyping to set up a task for it.

In the other cases, start with one task. Your team does more work with the same people. We guide you through that first task. Then you can do it yourself. Unsure what is growing in your company? Leave your number and we will call you back to discuss your situation.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need several AI agents as work grows?

Usually not. More work means more tasks. One AI agent waiting for approval is cheaper and easier to follow than a coordinator with agents underneath.

Does AI replace the coworkers I already have?

No. AI handles recurring preparation so the same people can handle more work. Judgment, customer contact, and approval stay with your team.

What happens if work shrinks again?

There is less work ready to approve. What your team taught Bombos stays as a rule for when work picks up again. With another coworker, it is different: you need to keep that job filled.

How do I see which part of the work is recurring?

Look at work that follows the same steps each time: reading incoming work, looking things up in software, retyping, or forwarding. Weekly timesheets, applications, and shared inbox email are good examples. Work where you make a different decision each time is not.

Does my team need technical skills to add tasks themselves?

No. We set up the first task together. Your team then teaches Bombos the next one themselves. You correct a proposal, and that correction becomes the rule. We do not want you to come back to us for every new task.

Will I still hire someone later?

Often, yes, but for different work. If work requiring judgment and contact grows, you need a person. That new coworker then starts on work that suits them rather than retyping.

Leave your number and we'll call you back to talk through your situation.

A few lines about how things go at your company is enough, or just your number. You won't get a sales pitch but a conversation: what stands out to us, which work could get lighter first at your company and what your team can take on after that. It costs nothing. If we see something worthwhile together, we start with that first piece of work.