A founder asked me last week if they should hire an AI consultant.

They wanted a chatbot for their website. Budget: $5,000.

My answer: Absolutely not. Use Intercom’s bot or Tidio. Takes an afternoon. Costs $50/month.

But another founder asked me the same question. They wanted to integrate AI into their core product for enterprise clients.

My answer: Yes. Get expert help. This matters too much to learn on the job.

When You Don’t Need a Consultant

Standard use cases

Chatbots. Content generation. Document summarization. Email automation.

These are solved problems. Tutorials exist. Templates exist. Tools like Zapier and Make handle the integration.

If your AI project is something ChatGPT already does well, you don’t need a consultant to wrap ChatGPT in your branding.

Small stakes

Internal tools. Productivity experiments. “Let’s see if AI can help with X.”

When failure costs nothing but time, learn by doing. You’ll understand AI better. You’ll know what to ask for if you hire help later.

Budget under $10,000

Consultants cost money. Good ones charge $200-500/hour. A proper engagement runs $15,000-50,000.

If your budget is $5,000, you’re not getting a consultant. You’re getting a freelancer pretending to be a consultant. Results vary.

When You Need Expert Help

Custom model requirements

The moment someone says “fine-tuning” or “training on your data,” complexity explodes. This requires:

• Understanding model architectures
• Data preparation expertise
• Evaluation frameworks
• MLOps knowledge

DIY fine-tuning goes wrong in expensive ways. I’ve seen startups burn $30,000 on failed attempts.

If you need custom AI beyond prompt engineering, work with AI consultants Sydney. They’ve made the mistakes already.

Customer-facing AI that matters

If AI failures will cost you customers, don’t experiment on production.

Your internal tools can be janky. Your customer-facing AI needs to be robust. Edge cases. Error handling. Graceful degradation.

Experience matters here. A lot.

Regulatory or compliance requirements

Healthcare. Finance. Legal. Any industry where AI mistakes have consequences beyond embarrassment.

You need someone who understands both the technology and the compliance landscape. Rare combination. Worth paying for.

Speed matters more than cost

Learning takes time. Months, sometimes.

If you need AI working in weeks and can’t afford mistakes, buy experience. It’s faster than earning it.

Finding Good Consultants

The AI consulting market is full of grifters. People who read a few blog posts and call themselves experts.

Look for:

• Specific case studies. Not “we helped a company with AI.” Names, numbers, outcomes.
• Technical depth. Can they explain tradeoffs between approaches? Or just buzzwords?
• Relevant experience. Enterprise AI is different from startup AI. Healthcare AI is different from e-commerce AI.
• Reasonable promises. Anyone guaranteeing specific ROI before understanding your situation is lying.

The Budget Reality

$5,000-15,000: You get a freelancer or small project. Fine for implementation of standard patterns.

$15,000-50,000: You get a proper engagement. Discovery, architecture, implementation, testing.

$50,000+: You get a team. Multiple specialists. Ongoing support. Enterprise-grade delivery.

Match your expectations to your budget.

My Recommendation

Start DIY. Always.

Use ChatGPT and Claude directly. Build something scrappy. Learn what’s hard and what’s easy.

Then, if you hit walls that matter, hire help for the specific walls. Not general “AI strategy.” Specific problems.

You’ll get better results because you’ll know what questions to ask.