The AI Consultancy works to fixed-fee, deliverable-led engagements wherever the scope can be defined in advance. At AI Consultant Manchester, the North West branch, that means every engagement is either a fixed price or sits within a published band. Our rates run from GBP 200 for a one-to-one training session to GBP 25,000 for a bespoke custom build, with most Greater Manchester SMEs spending between GBP 1,000 and GBP 7,500. All prices on this page exclude VAT.
We publish prices because the lack of published pricing is the most common complaint we hear from businesses comparing AI consultancies. Hidden pricing favours the vendor, not the buyer. A published price has to be defended, and it lets you judge whether we fit your budget before booking a call. For the longer explanation of how AI project pricing works and how to choose between the options, read the full guide to AI consultant pricing in Manchester.
How we price AI work
The default model is a fixed fee tied to a defined deliverable. This protects both sides: you know what the invoice will be before the work begins, and we are incentivised to scope the work accurately rather than meter time. The Discovery Audit is always fixed because its scope is bounded by definition. A Proof of Concept is fixed in most cases because the working solution is the deliverable. Larger production builds are fixed where the integration surface is clear and banded where it is genuinely uncertain at the outset, with a firm figure confirmed after the Discovery Audit.
Where the scope is too open-ended for an honest fixed quote, such as fractional advisory work or sustained support on a system that has not yet been diagnosed, we use a day rate or a monthly retainer, and the band is published openly below. We do not bill for proposal writing, the initial consultation, or the time taken to scope an engagement. We do not bill for travel within Greater Manchester unless an engagement requires sustained on-site delivery, in which case it is itemised and agreed in writing. Throughout, "from GBP X" means the price for the minimum-scope version of that engagement: one use case, a standard vendor stack, and deployment to a standard UK or EU cloud region.
Discovery Audit: GBP 1,000 fixed
The Discovery Audit is a two-week, fixed-price assessment that measures where your team's time is going and ranks AI opportunities by payback. It is the entry point for almost every engagement, and it is useful on its own even if you build nothing afterwards.
You finish with a process map, a time-and-cost baseline for each candidate process, a ranked opportunity list, a written recommendation document, and a fixed-price quote for the first build. The baseline is yours to keep. If a Discovery Audit leads to a Proof of Concept or a larger build commissioned within 90 days, 50 per cent of the audit fee is credited against that engagement, so the assessment is effectively halved for clients who proceed. Full detail, including a worked example of the output, is on the Discovery Audit page.
Price: GBP 1,000, fixed, delivered in around two weeks.
Proof of Concept by service type
A Proof of Concept builds and deploys one working solution on your real systems, with a fixed scope and a fixed timeline. The price depends on which service the Proof of Concept sits within, because the build effort differs between, say, a single automated workflow and a phone-answering voice agent. Each "from" figure is the minimum-scope version; scope above the minimum is quoted before any work begins.
For AI Workflow Automation, a single end-to-end automation is GBP 5,000. This covers process design, build, testing against your historical data, a parallel run to confirm accuracy, and cutover, typically over six to eight weeks.
For Chatbot and Voice AI, an implementation starts from GBP 3,500. This covers a web, WhatsApp, or phone agent connected to your live systems, not a contact-form bot that only collects names.
For AI Marketing Automation, a foundation engagement starts from GBP 2,500. This covers CRM, email, and campaign automation set up and measured against your existing baseline so the change in lead quality is visible.
For AI Training, workshops start from GBP 500 for a team session and GBP 200 for a one-to-one session. Training is the lowest-cost entry point and often delivers strong value on its own, because a team that uses AI tools well every day captures time across the whole business, not just one process.
Ongoing engagements
Once a first solution is live, most clients want to keep improving it and add more. Ongoing work is structured as a monthly retainer scaled to how much change you want each month.
A light retainer covering monitoring, support, and occasional adjustments starts from GBP 400 a month. An active development retainer, where we are building new automations and improvements each month, runs from GBP 1,500 to GBP 5,000 a month depending on scope. Ongoing marketing operations work sits in the same GBP 1,500 to GBP 5,000 a month range. For context, the published Manchester market range for ongoing AI support runs from GBP 500 to GBP 9,000 a month, which reflects how widely scope can vary between a light touch and a near-embedded team. There is no minimum contract length beyond the notice period set out in your Letter of Engagement, and retainers are reviewed against results rather than locked in regardless of value.
Complex and custom builds
Some projects are larger than a single Proof of Concept. Complex multi-step workflows with AI components and four or more system integrations typically cost GBP 6,000 to GBP 12,000. Bespoke applications with custom AI components and deep integration into line-of-business systems run from GBP 10,000 to GBP 25,000, quoted after a Discovery Audit. We band rather than fix these because the effort depends on the systems involved and the state of your data; the Discovery Audit produces a firm figure within the band before you commit, so you are never asked to sign off an open-ended build.
Advisory and fractional support
Some businesses do not need a project; they need senior AI judgement on call to advise on tool selection, review build quality, and keep an AI roadmap honest. This is open-ended by nature, so it is priced on the group day-rate band of GBP 950 to GBP 1,500 per day, or as a monthly retainer scaled to the time you need. Where the day rate sits within the band depends on the seniority of the consultant assigned, whether the work needs sector-specialist regulatory knowledge, and whether it is delivered remotely or on-site. Advisory and day-rate work is invoiced monthly in arrears against a written timesheet, with no minimum monthly commitment unless you request one.
What drives the number
Four factors move an AI project price more than anything else, and they are the same factors we assess during a Discovery Audit. Process complexity is the largest: a single, well-defined process with clean inputs is cheap to automate, while a process that varies case by case or depends on human judgement costs more because it needs more design and testing. Integration count is the second: connecting to one system is straightforward, connecting to four multiplies the build and testing effort. Data quality is the third and the most often underestimated, because messy or scattered data has to be structured before AI can work reliably. Adoption support is the fourth, and it determines whether you see any return at all, because an automation the team works around delivers nothing.
What is included in every engagement
Every engagement, at every price point, includes the same baseline. A named senior consultant leads the work and is your primary point of contact; junior staff support delivery but do not lead it. The UK GDPR posture is handled for you, with a Data Processing Agreement where personal data is involved and a Data Protection Impact Assessment where a use case triggers one. Cloud workloads are deployed to UK or EU regions by default. Every engagement produces written deliverables you can circulate, audit, or hand over without a verbal briefing. And there are no invoicing surprises: out-of-scope work is quoted separately before any additional cost is incurred. These are described further in how we work.
How our pricing compares
Pricing transparency is rare in the Manchester AI market. Of the direct local competitors, only Alderley AI publishes its rates, using a GBP 1,000 discovery and GBP 5,000 Proof of Concept model with ongoing retainers from GBP 500 to GBP 9,000 a month. We deliberately publish on the same basis so you can compare like for like, and our Discovery Audit and workflow Proof of Concept prices match that Manchester market anchor. Where we differ is breadth and proof: our published range covers four services rather than one, with separate entry points for training, chatbots and voice, and marketing automation, and the delivery sits behind the group's AWS, Google Cloud, Nvidia, and Anthropic Consulting Partner credentials, which no direct Manchester competitor holds. The point of publishing pricing is not to be the cheapest; it is to let you judge value before you spend an hour on a sales call.
Payment and terms
Fixed-fee engagements are invoiced against agreed milestones. Larger builds are typically split 30 per cent on kick-off, 40 per cent at the mid-point, and 30 per cent on delivery; smaller fixed-fee engagements such as the Discovery Audit are usually split between kick-off and delivery. Payment terms are 14 days from the invoice date. Engagements under GBP 5,000 can be paid by card via Stripe, which covers the Discovery Audit and most single Proof of Concept builds; larger engagements are paid by UK bank transfer. Retainers and day-rate work are invoiced monthly in arrears. All prices exclude VAT, which is added to UK invoices at the prevailing rate (20 per cent at the time of publishing); the reverse charge applies to EU and non-UK business clients where the rules permit, and VAT treatment is confirmed in writing before any engagement begins. If scope changes mid-engagement, the change is quoted before any out-of-scope work starts, and the adjustment applies symmetrically: if scope shrinks during delivery, the fee is reduced by the same process.