What Does an AI Consultancy Project Include? Start to Finish for a Small Business

A proper AI consultancy project for a small business has five parts: a call to understand the problem, a written scope and fixed price, a build you use while it is being made, a handover where you own everything, and a check a few weeks later to see if it actually worked. If any of those is missing, ask why.

Most owners I speak to have never bought anything like this before. So here is what each stage looks like in practice, using how I run my own projects as the example.

Stage one: the first call

It starts with a conversation. Mine is free and lasts 20 minutes. You tell me what is slow, or what is quietly costing you money, and I ask a lot of questions.

The aim is to find the bottleneck. That is rarely the job you find most annoying. It is usually the one that costs the most hours, which tends to be duller and less obvious. Chasing invoices. Copying enquiries from one place to another. Writing the same email forty times a month.

By the end of the call we should both know roughly what the problem is worth fixing, in hours a week. If it is not worth fixing, I say so and we stop there.

Stage two: the scope and price in writing

Before any money changes hands, the job gets written down. What will be built. What it connects to. What it will not do. What it will cost to build, and what it will cost to run each month.

This is the part most small businesses skip when they buy software or hire help, and it is where bills creep. A written scope means the number cannot drift. If the job turns out bigger than we agreed, you hear about it early and you decide what happens.

My builds sit between £2,500 and £8,000, fixed before we start. If you are not sure what you need yet, the £297 AI Audit comes first and gives you three ideas in priority order with rough prices against each. Prices are all on work with me.

Stage three: the build

A typical build takes two to four weeks. The important thing is that you use it from the first week, not at the end.

That matters more than anything else in the project. You find out what is wrong with a tool by using it on real work. A quote tool that looks perfect in a demo will meet a job it has never seen within three days. Better that happens in week one, when it is cheap to change, than after handover.

So expect a few short check ins during the build. Something like "here is what it does now, try it on today's enquiries, tell me what annoyed you".

Stage four: handover and what you own

At handover you should own everything. The accounts the tool runs on, in your name. The code or the workflow. The data. The logins. A short plain English note on what it does and what to do if something looks wrong.

If a consultant keeps the accounts in their name, you are renting your own system from them. That is a common way small businesses end up paying monthly fees forever for something they thought they bought.

You should also know the running costs to the pound. For most small business automations that is tens of pounds a month, sometimes less. I break the numbers down in what AI costs to run each month.

Stage five: the six week check

Six weeks after it goes live, I ask one question. Are you actually doing less of that job than you were?

If the answer is no, something is wrong. Maybe the tool needs a change. Maybe the real bottleneck was somewhere else. Either way I would rather find that out and fix it than let it get quietly abandoned, which is what happens to most software small businesses buy.

What an AI consultancy project does not include

It does not include a monthly retainer unless you want one. It does not include a strategy deck you will never open. It does not include automating everything at once. One job, done properly, then you decide if there is a next one.

If you are trying to work out which job that should be, what to automate first walks through it, and questions to ask an AI consultant helps you test whoever you talk to.

Quick answers

What does an AI consultancy project include?

A first call to find the problem, a written scope and fixed price, a build of two to four weeks that you use as it is made, a handover where you own all the accounts and data, and a check a few weeks later to confirm it worked.

How long does an AI consultancy project take?

Most small business builds take two to four weeks from agreed scope to live. A smaller audit takes about a week. Larger jobs that connect several systems can take longer, and the scope should say so up front.

Do I own the AI tool after the project?

You should. Ask for the accounts, code, data and logins to be in your name. If the consultant keeps them, you are renting your system rather than owning it.

What does an AI consultancy project cost?

My own builds are £2,500 to £8,000, fixed before we start, with an optional £297 audit first. Running costs afterwards are usually tens of pounds a month.

Talk it through

If you have a job in mind and want to know what a project for it would look like, book a free 20 minute call. You will come away knowing roughly what it would take, even if you never hire me. More on how I work is on the AI consultant page.