Are AI agents for small businesses worth the hype?

I'm advising/investing in a business n the sustainable energy space and the leadership is considering investing some of their revenue and raised capital on building AI agents/workflows to support their long term growth and I've been seeing all of these AI agencies popping up and all the talk about how they are transformative for business's bottom lines but I'm curious to hear from traditional small businesses that have implemented AI agents/workflows

• What has your experience with them been?
• What is the cost to benefit ratio? is how much did you invest and did it have the desired impact on your business?
• How have your employees responded to your agents/workflow?
• How do you handle updates? Are the systems stuck in the time when they were implemented or do you pay a retainer to the agency that implemented the system for you?

I've been involved with AI for a few years but I don't know if these AI agents/workflows are robust and capable enough to offer significant value to small businesses