How an AI Consulting Engagement Runs: 30-60 Day Sprint, Fixed Fee, Embedded Team

An engagement runs as one continuous sprint of 30-60 days for the first production system, with longer programs for transformation scope. Week 1-2 is strategy: stakeholder interviews, workflow audit, ROI model, opportunity map. Week 2-3 is architecture and design. Week 3-8 is build and deploy, with first systems live in 10-14 days. After go-live, optimization continues at a lighter cadence.

Senior partners are embedded with the client team for the duration of the engagement. The same partners who scope the work also build it. There is no junior-consultant staffing layer between the client and the people doing the work, and no handoff between a strategy team and an implementation team.

Fixed-bid after the scoping call. Engagement scope, deliverables, and price are agreed before work starts. There is no hourly billing, no scope-creep change orders, and no surprise invoices. Pricing ranges from a fixed-scope strategy engagement (starting around $4,500 for the AI Accelerator workshop) to full implementation engagements scaled to the number of automations, agents, and integrations in scope.

Strategy phase: 2 weeks. First production system live: 10-14 days into the implementation phase. Full first-system engagement: 30-60 days end-to-end. Multi-quarter transformation programs run 9-15 months. The structural difference from traditional consulting is the absence of a multi-month strategy phase before any system ships.

No. Strategy and implementation are one engagement with the same team. There is no contract gap, no rebid for the build phase, and no loss of context between recommendation and deployment. Firms that need only strategy can buy a 2-week strategy engagement; firms that need build and deploy buy the continuous engagement.

An executive sponsor (CEO, COO, or functional head), a workflow owner who knows the day-to-day process, and access to the systems being integrated. The partner team provides the AI engineering, integration, and project management capacity. The client team is freed from staffing the build.

Big 4 and MBB engagements typically staff junior consultants on day-to-day work with partner review at gates, bill hourly, and run multi-month strategy phases before any build starts. Our model uses senior partners directly, is fixed-bid against scope, and ships the first system in weeks. The Big 4 model fits enterprise transformations with budget for the staffing structure; ours fits mid-market scope where the staffing model has to be lean.

Operational ownership is transferred to internal staff at handoff if the firm chooses to operate the system in-house. Many firms continue at a lighter cadence for new builds and optimization. Documentation, runbooks, and monitoring dashboards are part of every engagement deliverable, so the firm is not dependent on the partner to keep the system running.

Yes. NDAs are standard. We work within client security and data-handling requirements (HIPAA, SEC/FINRA, attorney-client privilege, SOC 2 client requirements) as part of scoping. Compliance review with the client's GC, CISO, or compliance lead is built into engagements where the workflow touches regulated data.