Illustrative cost

£12,000 to £36,000 ex VAT

Typical: £21,000
Duration: About 6 weeks
Effort: 22.5 to 45 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 15 November 2026; costs computed on 15 November 2026.

What is included

Review of the data room and technical documents
Interviews with the target's technical team
Code, model and data review at a sample level
A risk-rated report

Deliverables

Due diligence report with risk ratings
Findings call

Assumptions

Access to the target team and data room
A fixed review window

Not included

Financial and legal due diligence
Full code audit
Penetration testing

Project plan

Phases run one after another, about 6 weeks in all.

Phases, their length and main tasks
Phase	Weeks	Main tasks
Document review	2	Data room review; Question list
Interviews and technical review	2	Team interviews; Code and model sampling
Report	2	Risk-rated findings; Findings call

Who does the work

Person-days per role in each phase, low and high effort.

Days by phase and role
Phase	Role	Days (low to high)
Document review	AI architect	6 to 9 days
Interviews and technical review	AI architect	6 to 12 days
Interviews and technical review	Machine learning engineer	3 to 9 days
Report	AI architect	6 to 9 days
Report	Cyber security consultant	1.5 to 6 days

How the cost adds up

Cost by role: low, typical and high, before rounding
Role	Low (days × 25th percentile)	Typical (days × median)	High (days × 90th percentile)
AI architect	18 × £549 = £9,882	24 × £650 = £15,600	30 × £850 = £25,500
Machine learning engineer	3 × £500 = £1,500	6 × £564 = £3,384	9 × £738 = £6,642
Cyber security consultant	1.5 × £520 = £780	3.75 × £581 = £2,179	6 × £675 = £4,050
Total, rounded	£12,000	£21,000	£36,000

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 15 November 2026. Published under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Day rate sources, one row per role, read on 15 November 2026
Role	IT Jobs Watch page	Rates quoted	25th percentile	Median	90th percentile
AI architect	Artificial Intelligence Architect	148	£549	£650	£850
Machine learning engineer	Machine Learning Engineer	92	£500	£564	£738
Cyber security consultant	Cybersecurity Consultant	86	£520	£581	£675

AI technical due diligence for a large company buying an AI business