It's one of the first questions a sharp owner asks, and it's a fair one. You pay someone to build a digital employee. Six months later you want to change builders, or cut costs, or you just want to know what you'd be left with. Who owns what?
There's no industry standard yet, so here's how I set it up and why. Whoever you hire, get these answers in writing before the build starts.
The accounts are yours
A digital employee runs on a stack of platforms: the service it lives on, the tools it connects to, and the AI model it thinks with. In my builds, every one of those accounts is opened in the client's name, and the client's card pays the usage directly.
I get manager access to run it. I don't own the house it lives in. It's how a good marketing agency works inside your ad account instead of running your ads from theirs.
That also means you see the usage bill yourself. Platform costs are one line, and my fee for building and maintaining it is another. Nothing is buried in a markup.
What's yours and what's the builder's
| Piece | Who it belongs to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts, logins, and billing | You | They run in your name and on your card |
| Your data and the employee's memory of your business | You | It's built from your vendors, customers, and corrections |
| Its job description and the rules you approved | You | It documents how your business runs |
| The builder's methods, templates, and reusable skills | The builder | It's the toolkit they bring to every client |
That last row is where people get uneasy, so I'll be direct. A good builder has a library of approaches that took a lot of trial and error to get right. That's part of what you're paying for, and it's reasonable for them to keep it. What you should never give up is anything specific to your business.
What happens if you stop paying
Here's what I tell clients. If you stop the maintenance, the digital employee is still yours. It keeps running on your accounts until you turn it off. I remove my access, hand over the list of logins and a written runbook that explains what it does and how, and maintenance stops.
What stops with it is the part you were paying for: updates when a model changes, fixes when a connected tool breaks, and new skills as the job grows. A digital employee nobody looks after will slowly drift, the same way an unmanaged employee would.
What about "I'll just log in and change it myself"?
You can. It's your account. I'd just ask you to tell me first. Most of the ways a digital employee breaks come from well-meaning changes made without knowing what else depends on them. My agreements say plainly that problems caused by changes made outside the maintenance plan get fixed at normal rates, not for free.
Questions to ask any builder before you sign
- Whose name are the accounts in, and whose card pays for usage?
- Will I get a full list of logins and a written runbook?
- What happens to the employee, and my data, if I cancel?
- Which parts of the build do you keep, and which are mine?
- What happens if my team or I change something ourselves?
If a builder can't answer those in a sentence each, keep looking. I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice, so have yours read the agreement. But you should never have to wonder whether you'll lose the employee along with the vendor.
For how I build them, see AI digital employees. For how I keep them from doing damage, see governance and guardrails.
Want it in your name from day one?
Email me the job you'd hand off. Email is by far the best way to reach me, and I'll reply with what I'd build, what it costs, and exactly what you'd own.
Email matt@shepardconsulting.ai →Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns an AI digital employee?
The accounts it runs on, your data, and its business-specific rules should belong to the business, in the business's name. The builder typically keeps its own methods and reusable templates.
What happens to my digital employee if I stop paying the builder?
In a well-structured engagement, it keeps running on your accounts. The builder removes their access and hands over logins and documentation. Updates, fixes, and new skills stop.
Should my digital employee run on the builder's accounts?
It's safer if it runs on accounts in your name, paid with your card, with the builder given manager access. That way you don't lose it when you change vendors.
Can I edit my own digital employee?
Yes, since the accounts are yours. Check with your builder first, because changes made without knowing what depends on them are the most common cause of breakage.