Pricing

Clear engagement models instead of vague consulting

Pricing is shaped by scope, sensitivity, deployment model, and how much rollout support is needed. Exact figures come after discovery — the ranges below are directional.

Engagement models

Four ways to engage, with explicit boundaries

Assessment

Fixed-fee
Range: Low five figuresTimeline: 2–4 weeks

Best for teams that need a serious architecture and readiness recommendation before funding a pilot.

Included

  • Use-case prioritization and scoping
  • Data and access review
  • Deployment model recommendation
  • Risk register and governance requirements

Not included

  • Build work or environment provisioning
  • Vendor procurement support
  • Compliance certification work

Pilot

Scoped project
Range: Mid five to low six figuresTimeline: 6–12 weeks

Best for a first use case where the organization wants a controlled deployment with defined success criteria.

Included

  • Architecture, retrieval, and integration build
  • Identity, logging, and control implementation
  • Evaluation harness and acceptance testing
  • Admin and user enablement

Not included

  • Broad multi-use-case rollout
  • Production-grade scaling beyond pilot scope
  • Long-term run support outside the pilot window

Production rollout

Custom quote
Range: Mid six figures and upTimeline: 8–16 weeks

Best when a validated pilot is ready to move into a production environment with broader adoption.

Included

  • Hardening and control validation
  • Production integration and data wiring
  • Runbooks, training, and change management
  • Launch review and rollback procedures

Not included

  • Replacing your internal platform team
  • Ongoing 24/7 operational support (covered separately)
  • Compliance audit work

Governance and support

Retainer
Range: Defined per cadenceTimeline: Monthly or quarterly

Best for teams that want continued advisory, policy review, optimization, and expansion planning.

Included

  • Quarterly architecture and policy review
  • Use-case expansion planning
  • Logging, retention, and access review
  • Operational guidance for updates and incidents

Not included

  • Full-time staff augmentation
  • Replacing internal incident response
  • Unbounded build hours

Ranges reflect the scope a typical mid-market to enterprise client funds — they are not minimums, maximums, or a substitute for a quote.

What drives the quote

Six variables that move the number

A real quote depends on these. They are surfaced during discovery so the proposal is grounded in your actual environment.

Data sensitivity

Higher sensitivity means more rigorous control design, deeper threat modeling, and tighter logging boundaries — all of which add scope.

Deployment model

On-premises and air-gapped environments cost more than private cloud, which costs more than controlled hosted. The choice is driven by your constraints, not by us.

Integration count

Each system the AI environment reads from or writes to adds review, access, and operational complexity. A clean pilot touches 1–3 systems; rollouts often touch 5+.

Number of user populations

One team behind one workflow is the cheapest engagement. Multiple roles, geographies, or business units multiply the design and training surface.

Governance maturity

If access reviews, change control, and logging review already exist internally, governance work plugs in faster. If those processes need to be built, that effort is part of the engagement.

Rollout support depth

Light support is documentation plus a launch review. Deeper support includes training cohorts, office hours, and an extended hardening window.

What is intentionally not part of this pricing

Boundaries that keep the work focused

  • Hourly retainers with vague deliverables.
  • “AI strategy” workshops priced like a build.
  • Proposals that ask for commitment before discovery.
  • Undisclosed markups on third-party software or cloud spend.

Ready for a real quote?

Exact pricing belongs after a discovery conversation. That keeps the proposal grounded in environment constraints, ownership model, and the level of governance required.