How much does an AI consultant cost in the UK?

You'll mostly come across three models. None is better than the others, but each suits a different job.

• Day rate. Good for short, well-defined pieces of work, like a workshop or an audit. Just keep an eye on how many days it takes.
• Fixed project price. You know the cost up front, which is lovely. The catch is that it only works when the scope is clear, so expect to agree exactly what's included, in writing.
• Monthly retainer. Suits ongoing building, support and tweaking as your team gets used to new tools. Always check the notice period and what happens to anything built if you stop.

• Custom builds. Bespoke tools cost more than setting up off-the-shelf ones.
• The number of systems involved. Connecting your inbox, CRM, accounts software and a spreadsheet is more work than connecting two of them.
• Messy data. If information lives in five places and three formats, someone has to tidy it first.
• Training. Getting ten people confident with a tool takes longer than getting two.
• Rushed timelines. Urgent work costs more pretty much everywhere, and AI is no different.

Often, yes. A surprising amount of the time, the right answer is a feature hiding in software you already pay for, or a small change to how a task is done. Sometimes the honest answer is that you don't need to spend anything at all. A good consultant will tell you that, even if it means a smaller invoice.

• The first call is free. 20 minutes to see if we're the right fit, and you'll get a recommended first step even if it's not with us.
• The Owl's Eye view is a fixed fee, agreed on the call. A half-day deep dive by video call into where your business is leaking time, leads and money. You get a prioritised, plain-English roadmap.
• Building the outcomes is a monthly fee based on what you need. Cancel any time.

Do the maths on the time it frees up. Say three people each spend two hours a week copying enquiries from emails into a spreadsheet. That's six hours a week, or over 300 hours a year, spent on work nobody was hired to do. Put an hourly cost on that and you've got a rough ceiling for what fixing it is worth.

It doesn't need to be an exact science. Tracking where the time goes for a week or two is usually enough to see whether the numbers stack up.

• Cheap, one-size-fits-all packages that give every business the same chatbot.
• Big up-front fees before anyone has looked at how your business works.
• Prices that aren't written down. If it's not in writing, it's not agreed.