A design studio for AI agent startups designs the interface around an agent that plans and acts for users: what it shows before it acts, how people approve or undo it, and what happens when it fails. Where the studios below publish a price or a Clutch minimum, it runs from $4,599 a month to $100,000+ for a project.
Your agent works in the demo. In production it picks the wrong tool, times out halfway or asks for a permission it already has. The interface decides whether customers trust it. That's a different brief from a chat screen, so ask for a live example.
We build websites for AI agent startups too, so this list isn't ranked. Studios are in alphabetical order, us included, and nobody paid to be on it.
How we picked
A studio made the list if:
- its own site says it designs AI agents or agentic products, or shows agent work in a case study
- it works with startups or scale-ups, by its own account
- it shows client work on its own site
- it's a studio, not a solo freelancer
We left out freelancers, template shops and studios that mention AI but not agents on their own site. Prices, ratings and client names come from each studio's own site or Clutch profile.
The six studios at a glance
One of the six publishes a price (Eleken). Three set a Clutch minimum: Lazarev, Onething and Parallel. &above and Hexcode publish none.
| Studio | Based | Best for | Price signal (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| &above | London, per its site | Agent oversight for larger teams | Not published |
| Eleken | Kyiv, with a US entity in Delaware | Agent features, on a monthly plan | $4,599/mo part-time, $6,599/mo full-time, 2-month minimum |
| Hexcode (us) | Indore, India | Websites for agent startups | Not published |
| Lazarev | San Francisco | Trust and oversight for funded agents | Clutch minimum $100,000+, $100 to $149/hr |
| Onething Design | Gurugram, Bengaluru and San Francisco, per its site | Agentic design from India and the US | Clutch minimum $10,000+, $25 to $49/hr |
| Parallel | San Francisco and Bangalore | Agent flows at seed to Series A | Clutch minimum $10,000+, $50 to $99/hr |
The numbers behind it
| Studio | Clutch | Named clients |
|---|---|---|
| &above | Not checked | Google Cloud, Revolut, Sage, Tesco |
| Eleken | 4.9 (100+ reviews, per its site) | Privado Dining, Siena |
| Hexcode (us) | Profile, no reviews yet | Jooba, Riveter, Serval |
| Lazarev | 5.0 (19 reviews) | Accern, Barricade AI, Elva, Pika AI |
| Onething Design | 4.9 (32 reviews) | Murphi.ai, Traqcheck |
| Parallel | 4.8 | Autoheal, Launch, Sentra |
Figures from each studio's own site or Clutch profile, checked . A Clutch minimum is the smallest project a studio sets on Clutch, not a quote. Where a studio says "Not checked" for Clutch, we haven't looked at its Clutch profile. Named clients are ones the studio names on its own site.
Notes on each studio
&above
A design-led product agency in London. Its AI product design page says it designs agentic flows and the structure of agentic products, including where a human confirms, corrects or takes over, with designers embedded alongside AI engineers. It shows a Sage creative agent, a Google Cloud agent system used daily by 5,000 sellers, and a Tesco compliance engine. It says it works with scale-ups and enterprises, publishes no price and we haven't checked its Clutch profile.
Good fit if: you're a scale-up that needs a human-in-the-loop design for an agent inside a larger product.
Not a fit if: you're pre-seed, because its page names scale-ups and enterprises, not startups.
Eleken
A product design studio with offices in Kyiv and Newark, Delaware. Its article on agentic UX links to a page on designing AI-powered agents and shows Privado Dining (an AI co-pilot that surfaces event changes for a manager to review) and Siena (a test automation feature driven by typed intent). It publishes $4,599 a month part-time and $6,599 full-time, with a two-month minimum, and shows 4.9 from 100+ Clutch reviews, per its site.
Good fit if: you want a dedicated designer on a monthly plan for an agent feature inside a product.
Not a fit if: you need designers on US hours, because most of its designers are in GMT+2, per its site.
Hexcode (us)
A 15-person studio in Indore, founded in 2020, with US overlap until 1pm PT. Our clients page names Riveter (AI agents that turn web research into structured data), Serval (AI agents for IT teams) and Jooba (an AI-native recruiting firm). Our Riveter case study covers a Webflow redesign that went live in six weeks. Our agent work is websites, so we don't design approval flows or oversight screens for the agent itself. We don't publish a price and we have no Clutch reviews yet. See the Riveter case study
Good fit if: you need the website for an agent product shipped in weeks, in sprints with a demo each Friday.
Not a fit if: you need approval gates, audit trails and recovery flows designed for the agent itself.
Lazarev
A design studio based in San Francisco. Its agentic AI page says it designs the experience around an existing agent, including plan previews, approval gates, autonomy levels and failure states. It names Barricade AI and Accern in testimonials and shows Elva, a voice-first video editor with an agentic editing flow. It says founder engagements run four to eight months. It publishes no price. Clutch shows 5.0 from 19 reviews and a $100,000+ minimum.
Good fit if: you've built the agent and need trust, approval and recovery flows designed, with a larger budget.
Not a fit if: your budget is under $100,000, its Clutch minimum.
Onething Design
A design studio with offices in Gurugram, Bengaluru and San Francisco, per its site. Its FAQ says Agentic Experience Design focuses on systems where AI agents perform tasks on behalf of users, and its site lists agentic design as a service, with Murphi.ai and Traqcheck among its case studies. It says focused engagements take 8 to 12 weeks and targets fast-scaling startups. It publishes no price. Clutch shows 4.9 from 32 reviews and a $10,000+ minimum.
Good fit if: you want a defined 8 to 12 week engagement and a team across India and San Francisco.
Not a fit if: you want a published price before the first call.
Parallel
A studio with a San Francisco base and a Bangalore team. Its site describes designing an agentic flow for Launch, an app builder with AI as pair programmer, and lists Autoheal and Sentra among its clients, both products built around AI agents. It offers an early-stage package for seed to Series A teams. It publishes no price. Clutch shows 4.8 and a $10,000+ minimum.
Good fit if: you're seed to Series A and want one studio for the agent flow and the product around it.
Not a fit if: you want a page that sets out how it designs agent oversight, because its site shows agent work in case studies.
What should an agent interface get right first?
Show what the agent will do before it does it, and make every action easy to review and undo. The rest of the interface can follow.
| Your situation | Look for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| The agent takes actions for users | A plan preview and approval before it acts | Silent actions with no record |
| The agent can be wrong | Clear failure and recovery states | An error screen that only says something went wrong |
| Customers worry about control | A way to turn autonomy up or down | All-or-nothing automation |
| Your buyers run audits | An audit log a user can read | Logs only engineers can see |
Six questions to ask before you sign
- Which agent products have you designed, and can I see them live?
- How do you design for the agent being wrong?
- Will you prototype against our real model, or with mock data?
- Who does the work, and have they shipped an agent before?
- What do I own at the end, and can my team extend the patterns?
- Can I speak to a founder whose agent you designed?
Questions
How much does design cost for an AI agent startup?
Only Eleken publishes a price, $4,599 a month part-time or $6,599 full-time with a two-month minimum. Onething and Parallel show Clutch minimums of $10,000+ and Lazarev's is $100,000+. &above and we publish none.
Do I need a studio that has designed agents before?
It helps, because agent screens handle approval, failure and undo, which a standard dashboard doesn't. Lazarev, Onething and &above say on their own pages that they design agents, Eleken and Parallel show agent work, and we've built sites for agent startups. Ask each for a live example.
Can one studio design the agent and the website?
Some can. Lazarev lists websites such as Bacca AI alongside agent work, and Parallel and Eleken design product flows. We design websites, not agent interfaces.
How long does an agent design project take?
Anywhere from weeks to months. Onething says focused engagements take 8 to 12 weeks, Lazarev says founder engagements run four to eight months and our Riveter website went live in six weeks.
Do these studios work with early-stage startups?
Mostly. Parallel has a seed to Series A package, Onething targets fast-scaling startups, and Lazarev speaks to founders heading to Series A. &above says it works with scale-ups and enterprises.
Why isn't this list ranked?
Because we're on it. Ranking a list we compete in would tell you more about us than about the studios. So it's alphabetical, with the facts we could check.
Related
Spotted something wrong? Email shabbir@hexcode.design with a link and we'll fix it.
Does your site explain what the agent actually does?
Thirty minutes, no deck. Show us the site and tell us how the agent works, and we'll say where we'd start, even if the answer is one of the other five.
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