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What an AI consultant costs
Hourly, project and retainer rates explained. Market benchmarks with sources, our published Kansas City ranges, the costs that never show up on a consultant's invoice (licenses, data cleanup, your team's time), red flags in proposals and example first-year budgets for a 12-person, 45-person and 150-person company.
Read this if: you're trying to set a budget or judge whether a quote is fair.
How to choose an AI consultant
Twelve questions to ask before you sign, what good and bad answers sound like, a simple scoring sheet, a vendor-neutral test and the contract terms that protect you. Includes the single most useful step in any selection process: asking to see something running.
Read this if: you're talking to more than one firm, or you've been pitched an AI product and want a neutral way to evaluate it.
Quick answers
Short, sourced answers to questions we hear every week. Prices were checked on the vendors' own pages on October 22, 2026, and change often.
What does a business AI assistant cost per person?
Microsoft lists Microsoft 365 Copilot Business at $18 per user per month paid yearly (Microsoft). ChatGPT Business is $20 per user per month billed annually (OpenAI). Claude Team standard seats are $20 per user per month billed annually (Anthropic). Gemini is included in Google Workspace business plans (Google).
Do these tools train on our business data?
OpenAI and Anthropic state that their business plans don't train on your content by default. Microsoft states that Copilot prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren't used to train foundation models (Microsoft Learn). Free consumer accounts are a different story, which is why your team's tool choice matters.
How many businesses actually use AI?
Fewer than the headlines suggest. The Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey put current AI use at roughly 17% to 20% of U.S. firms through early May 2026, and 37% among firms with 250 or more employees (Census Bureau).
Is my team already using AI without telling me?
Probably. In Microsoft and LinkedIn's 2024 Work Trend Index, 78% of AI users said they bring their own AI tools to work (Microsoft). The fix isn't a ban, which pushes usage out of sight. It's approved business tools and a short written AI use policy.
How we write these guides
- Dated. Every guide shows when it was last updated. AI tools and prices change often, and we revise guides when they do.
- Sourced. Prices link to vendor pages. Statistics link to the survey or agency that published them.
- Honest about estimates. When a number is our judgment rather than a published figure, we label it.
- Vendor-neutral. We compare tools on fit, cost and data handling, not on which one we'd rather sell.
More guides are on the way: a Kansas City small business AI playbook, a tool-by-tool comparison and an AI data privacy primer among them.