How much does an AI consultancy cost in the UK?
A straight answer to a question most AI consultants dodge: what this kind of work actually costs, including our own real fixed fees as a reference point.
If you've started looking into hiring an AI consultant, you've probably noticed a pattern: almost nobody publishes a price. Every site funnels you toward a "book a call" button before you've learned anything about budget. That's not necessarily because the pricing is unreasonable, it's usually because the person selling the service would rather have the conversation before you've had a chance to compare them to anyone else. This is an attempt to answer the question directly, without a call first.
Why AI consultancy pricing is so opaque
Part of it is genuine: the cost of AI consulting varies enormously depending on what's actually being asked for, and a single number on a website can be misleading in either direction. But a lot of it is simply that hiding the price keeps you in the sales process for longer, and gives the consultant room to price you based on what you seem able to pay rather than what the work is actually worth. The result is that most people go into their first call with no anchor at all. That makes it hard to know whether a quote is reasonable, and it makes it almost impossible to compare two consultants against each other, since you're never looking at the same scope of work twice.
The three ways AI consultants actually charge
Almost every engagement falls into one of three structures, and the mismatch that causes most disputes is usually the wrong structure applied to the wrong kind of work.
- Day rate: you pay for time, not outcomes. Works well for open-ended advisory work, but puts all the scope risk on you.
- Fixed project fee: a defined piece of work for a defined price, agreed before it starts. Suits diagnostic work and well-bounded builds best.
- Retainer: ongoing monthly access to expertise. The easiest structure to overpay for, since the value depends on how much actually gets used.
What actually drives the price
Regardless of structure, a handful of things determine what any of this should reasonably cost.
- The number of systems or agents involved, and whether they need to talk to each other or to existing software.
- Data complexity: messy or scattered data takes longer to work with than a single clean source.
- How much training and handover is included, since being left able to run and extend the work yourself is worth more than a consultant who disappears with the login details. Whether it's a one-off diagnostic or a multi-month build with ongoing support.
What this actually costs at Archetype
Rather than quote a market average nobody can verify, here's what one AI strategy consultancy (this one) actually charges, as a real reference point. The entry point is the AI Risk & Opportunity Audit: a fixed £450, one structured 60 to 90 minute call followed by a written roadmap of risks, opportunities and priorities. No scoping call required first, since the whole point is to get a clear answer before committing more. A Single Agent Build starts from £1,500 for one well-scoped agent, working and handed over. The Agent Builder Programme runs from £3,500 for a four week engagement (align, build two agents, teach, embed). Agent Systems, AI Strategy Engagements and Fractional AI Director are all priced on request, because the scope genuinely varies too much to fix in advance. AI Executive Coaching is £750 for a single 90 minute session, or £2,600 for a four-session programme over six weeks.
Questions worth asking before you commit
Whatever you end up paying, a few questions tend to separate a good engagement from a bad one.
- Is the fee genuinely fixed, or will scope creep quietly turn it into something closer to a day rate?
- Who actually does the work, the person you're speaking to now, or a team you haven't met yet?
- What do you own at the end of it: a working system you can run yourselves, or a dependency on the consultant for every future change?
Where to start
If you're not sure yet whether any of this is worth the spend, the honest answer is to start small. The Audit exists precisely for that reason: a fixed, low-commitment way to get a real answer on where AI could move the needle for your business, before anyone commits to more.