AI product MVP · Small business (10 to 49 staff)
AI product MVP build for a small software company
A minimum viable AI product for a small software company: defined with real users, designed, built on a commercial model and released to a first group of customers. The AI feature is added to the company's existing product family as a new product.
Illustrative cost
£17,000 to £53,000 ex VAT
- Typical
- £29,000
- Duration
- About 13 weeks
- Effort
- 39 to 71 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
- Product definition and user research
- UX design for the core journey
- Build of a web app with an AI feature at its core
- Testing, including the AI feature's failure modes
- Release to early users
Deliverables
- Working MVP
- Design files
- Test report
- Source code and documentation
Assumptions
- One core user journey
- Standard cloud hosting and a commercial model API
- The client owns the product decisions
Not included
- Mobile apps
- Scaling beyond early users
- Hosting and model fees
Project plan
Phases run one after another, about 13 weeks in all.
| Phase | Weeks | Main tasks |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and product definition | 2 | User interviews; Define the core journey; Technical approach |
| Design | 2 | Wireframes; Prototype testing |
| Build | 6 | Application build; AI feature; Hosting |
| Testing | 2 | Functional testing; AI evaluation |
| Launch | 1 | Release to early users; Measure use |
Who does the work
Person-days per role in each phase, low and high effort.
| Phase | Role | Days (low to high) |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and product definition | Product manager (AI products) | 3 to 5 days |
| Discovery and product definition | UX designer | 2 to 4 days |
| Discovery and product definition | AI architect | 1 to 3 days |
| Design | UX designer | 4 to 7 days |
| Build | AI engineer | 15 to 25 days |
| Build | Generative AI (LLM) engineer | 5 to 10 days |
| Build | Cloud engineer | 2 to 4 days |
| Testing | Test engineer | 4 to 8 days |
| Launch | Product manager (AI products) | 2 to 3 days |
| Launch | Cloud engineer | 1 to 2 days |
How the cost adds up
| Role | Low (days × 25th percentile) | Typical (days × median) | High (days × 90th percentile) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product manager (AI products) | 5 × £463 = £2,315 | 6.5 × £550 = £3,575 | 8 × £725 = £5,800 |
| UX designer | 6 × £406 = £2,436 | 8.5 × £450 = £3,825 | 11 × £588 = £6,468 |
| AI architect | 1 × £549 = £549 | 2 × £650 = £1,300 | 3 × £850 = £2,550 |
| AI engineer | 15 × £488 = £7,320 | 20 × £589 = £11,780 | 25 × £863 = £21,575 |
| Generative AI (LLM) engineer | 5 × £417 = £2,085 | 7.5 × £543 = £4,073 | 10 × £825 = £8,250 |
| Cloud engineer | 3 × £428 = £1,284 | 4.5 × £513 = £2,309 | 6 × £675 = £4,050 |
| Test engineer | 4 × £350 = £1,400 | 6 × £438 = £2,628 | 8 × £588 = £4,704 |
| Total, rounded | £17,000 | £29,000 | £53,000 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product manager (AI products)IT Jobs Watch has no "AI Product Manager" contract title with daily rates; mapped to the closest title, Product Manager. | Product Manager | 360 | £463 | £550 | £725 |
| UX designer | UX Designer | 75 | £406 | £450 | £588 |
| AI architect | Artificial Intelligence Architect | 148 | £549 | £650 | £850 |
| AI engineer | Artificial Intelligence Engineer | 384 | £488 | £589 | £863 |
| Generative AI (LLM) engineerIT Jobs Watch has no "LLM Engineer" or "Prompt Engineer" title with daily rates; mapped to the closest title, Gen AI Engineer. | Gen AI Engineer | 30 | £417 | £543 | £825 |
| Cloud engineer | Cloud Engineer | 513 | £428 | £513 | £675 |
| Test engineer | Test Engineer | 245 | £350 | £438 | £588 |