How much does AI consultancy cost in the UK?
A practical explanation of UK AI consultancy pricing, day rates, project costs and what businesses should expect to receive.
AI consultancy can be priced by the hour, day, workshop, discovery phase, project or ongoing engagement. The useful comparison is not the headline rate alone. It is the amount of uncertainty removed, capability transferred and working value produced.
Common pricing models
| Model | Best suited to |
|---|---|
| Day rate | Advice, training, discovery and focused implementation |
| Fixed workshop | Leadership alignment or team capability building |
| Discovery phase | Prioritising opportunities and defining a larger project |
| Fixed project | A clearly specified prototype or implementation |
| Ongoing support | Adoption, iteration and governance over time |
Day rates
A day rate is straightforward for advisory work, training, discovery, workflow analysis and short implementation tasks. David Robertson's private consultancy rate through Scottish AI Guy starts at £750 per day.
What changes the cost?
- The clarity and complexity of the problem.
- The number of teams and systems involved.
- Data access, security and governance requirements.
- Whether the work is advice, training, prototyping or production delivery.
- Travel, timescale and ongoing support.
What should a first engagement achieve?
A sensible first engagement should reduce a real decision. It may identify and rank opportunities, test one workflow, train a team around a defined use case or scope a larger implementation. The output should be concrete enough for the organisation to act on.
Individuals who want to build capability continuously can choose the £49 monthly membership instead.