What AI consulting costs for a small business, and what you should get for it
Owners ask us this before anything else, so let us answer it the way we would across a desk.
The three ways AI consulting gets priced
Hourly advisory. You pay for time. Fine for a second opinion, risky for a project, because the incentive runs the wrong way.
Fixed-scope project. A defined outcome for a defined price: an assessment, a plan, a working automation. This is the format we prefer for first engagements because you know the number before you say yes.
Monthly retainer. Ongoing help for a business that is actively building. Worth it once there is a pipeline of work; wasteful before that.
What a fair first engagement includes
- A task-level review of where your team's hours go, not a generic maturity score.
- Specific build, buy, or skip recommendations with reasoning and estimated cost to run.
- A sequence: what to do in the first 30 days, the first quarter, the first year.
- Something you can act on without hiring the consultant again.
Warning signs
A proposal that never names a tool or a model. A plan whose first step is a "transformation roadmap." A price that only makes sense if you sign the retainer. A consultant who has never shipped software and cannot tell you how the thing will fail.
How we handle it
The first strategy conversation in our office is free. You talk to Jordan, he asks hard questions, and if there is a project worth doing the team writes a scoped proposal with a fixed price. If there is not, he says so. Read more about AI strategy at Diverse Digital.