AI assistant rollout · Small business (10 to 49 staff) · Professional services
AI assistant (Copilot) rollout for a small professional services firm
A managed rollout of a workplace AI assistant such as Microsoft 365 Copilot at a small professional services firm: permissions fixed first, a measured pilot, then training and adoption support. Permissions clean-up is usually the biggest task.
Illustrative cost
£6,500 to £20,000 ex VAT
- Typical
- £11,000
- Duration
- About 9 weeks
- Effort
- 15 to 29 days
Illustrative estimate, not a quote. Real prices vary.
Worked out from UK freelance contractor day rates in job adverts, with no consultancy or agency margin added. Consultancies and agencies usually charge more.
Source: IT Jobs Watch. Rates read on ; costs computed on .
What is included
- Readiness review of permissions and data exposure
- A pilot with measured use cases
- Rollout with training and champions
- Adoption review
Deliverables
- Readiness report and fixes list
- Pilot results
- Training materials
- Adoption report
Assumptions
- Licences are bought by the client
- Up to 40 users in scope
- Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace already in place
Not included
- Licence costs
- Custom agents or plug-ins
- Wider information management clean-up
Project plan
Phases run one after another, about 9 weeks in all.
| Phase | Weeks | Main tasks |
|---|---|---|
| Readiness and permissions | 2 | Review oversharing; Fix permissions; Set policies |
| Pilot | 3 | Choose use cases; Pilot group training; Measure |
| Rollout | 3 | Waves of rollout; Champions; Training |
| Adoption review | 1 | Usage analysis; Recommendations |
Who does the work
Person-days per role in each phase, low and high effort.
| Phase | Role | Days (low to high) |
|---|---|---|
| Readiness and permissions | Cyber security consultant | 2 to 4 days |
| Readiness and permissions | Cloud engineer | 1 to 3 days |
| Pilot | Change manager | 3 to 5 days |
| Pilot | Trainer | 2 to 3 days |
| Rollout | Change manager | 3 to 6 days |
| Rollout | Trainer | 2 to 4 days |
| Adoption review | Change manager | 1 to 2 days |
| Adoption review | Data analyst | 1 to 2 days |
How the cost adds up
| Role | Low (days × 25th percentile) | Typical (days × median) | High (days × 90th percentile) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cyber security consultant | 2 × £520 = £1,040 | 3 × £581 = £1,743 | 4 × £675 = £2,700 |
| Cloud engineer | 1 × £428 = £428 | 2 × £513 = £1,026 | 3 × £675 = £2,025 |
| Change manager | 7 × £458 = £3,206 | 10 × £525 = £5,251 | 13 × £711 = £9,243 |
| Trainer | 4 × £300 = £1,200 | 5.5 × £444 = £2,442 | 7 × £625 = £4,375 |
| Data analyst | 1 × £393 = £393 | 1.5 × £475 = £713 | 2 × £625 = £1,250 |
| Total, rounded | £6,500 | £11,000 | £20,000 |
How these estimates are worked out
Effort: for each phase we estimate how many days each role works, as a low and a high case. These are our estimates for a typical project of this kind, not measured data.
Rates: each role's daily rate comes from UK contract job adverts over the last six months, as published by IT Jobs Watch. These are freelance contractor rates as advertised, not what was paid, and not what a consultancy or agency charges.
Low end: the low-effort days at each role's 25th-percentile rate. We use the 25th percentile, not the 10th, because the lowest effort at the cheapest rates gives a floor few buyers would ever meet.
Typical: the mid-point between low and high effort, at each role's median rate.
High end: the high-effort days at each role's 90th-percentile rate.
Totals are rounded to the nearest £500 below £10,000 and the nearest £1,000 above, and exclude VAT. Phases run one after another.
Not included:
- Software licences, model and hosting fees
- Travel and expenses
- Your own staff's time
- A consultancy's or agency's margin, overheads and risk
Real prices vary with the supplier, the state of your data and systems, how much of the work your own team does, where the work happens and how much risk the supplier carries. Consultancies and agencies usually charge more than these contractor rates, and a fixed price usually costs more than time and materials because the supplier takes the risk.
Sources
Source: IT Jobs Watch: UK contract job adverts quoting a daily rate, 6 months to 15 November 2026. Each role's page was read on . Published under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
| Role | IT Jobs Watch page | Rates quoted | 25th percentile | Median | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyber security consultant | Cybersecurity Consultant | 86 | £520 | £581 | £675 |
| Cloud engineer | Cloud Engineer | 513 | £428 | £513 | £675 |
| Change manager | Change Manager | 193 | £458 | £525 | £711 |
| Trainer"IT Trainer" had too few rates (12, no 10th percentile); mapped to the broader title, Trainer, which includes non-IT trainers. | Trainer | 96 | £300 | £444 | £625 |
| Data analyst | Data Analyst | 511 | £393 | £475 | £625 |