Key points
- Outside help with AI comes in three kinds: consultants, agencies and freelancers. Their pitches sound much alike, so it is hard to tell which kind your project needs.
- Usually, a consultant helps you plan, an agency's team builds and runs things, and a freelancer is one specialist on one defined job. Each kind suits some jobs but not others.
- If you are unsure where AI could help, paying for advice first is often the cheapest start. When the task is clear, a freelancer with the matching skill can handle a small job, once you have written down what finished looks like.
- Bigger builds need several skills: understanding the process, building, linking systems and upkeep. An agency can cover them, or a consultant who pulls in others, or freelancers you manage yourself; that last route often looks cheapest but takes most of your time.
- Fees usually come as a daily rate, a set price or a monthly retainer, and none is cheaper across the board. Daily rates suit loosely defined work, set prices suit clearly described work, and retainers suit tools needing upkeep.
- Find out who will do the hands-on work, since the seller may not be the builder, and who covers if the builder is ill or leaves. A set price puts some overrun risk on the supplier; on a day rate, you bear more of it.
- Often the bigger danger, whoever you hire, is whether your own staff can run the tool afterwards, so get documentation and training written into the deal. Combining kinds is normal: one helper plans, another builds.
- First jot down your problem and which single measure should improve, then choose help to match the job. AI Consultancy Finder's guide has the full checklist.
Transcript
Outside help with AI comes in three kinds: consultants, agencies and freelancers. Their pitches sound much alike, so it is hard to tell which kind your project needs. Usually, a consultant helps you plan, an agency's team builds and runs things, and a freelancer is one specialist on one defined job.
Each kind suits some jobs but not others. If you are unsure where AI could help, paying for advice first is often the cheapest start. When the task is clear, a freelancer with the matching skill can handle a small job, once you have written down what finished looks like.
Bigger builds need several skills: understanding the process, building, linking systems and upkeep. An agency can cover them, or a consultant who pulls in others, or freelancers you manage yourself; that last route often looks cheapest but takes most of your time.
Fees usually come as a daily rate, a set price or a monthly retainer, and none is cheaper across the board. Daily rates suit loosely defined work, set prices suit clearly described work, and retainers suit tools needing upkeep. Find out who will do the hands-on work, since the seller may not be the builder, and who covers if the builder is ill or leaves.
A set price puts some overrun risk on the supplier; on a day rate, you bear more of it. Often the bigger danger, whoever you hire, is whether your own staff can run the tool afterwards, so get documentation and training written into the deal.
Combining kinds is normal: one helper plans, another builds. First jot down your problem and which single measure should improve, then choose help to match the job. AI Consultancy Finder's guide has the full checklist.