This comes up in almost every intro call, usually as a version of “why would we pay you when we could just hire someone”.
What each option costs
An in-house AI or automation engineer in Australia in 2026 costs roughly $140,000 to $220,000 a year in salary. Add superannuation, software and the months it takes them to learn how your business works. A senior person who can also decide what to build, not only build what they are told, costs more. They are hard to find outside the capital cities.
A consultant costs more per day and nothing on the days you are not using them. A discovery period and first build for a mid sized business typically costs between a quarter and a half of one year’s in-house salary. The outcome is something running in production.
The problem with hiring first
The in-house hire has to be good at three different things. Finding where the hours go, which is a business analysis skill. Building the automation, which is an engineering skill. Running and improving it, which is an operations skill. Most people are good at one, and the job advert usually asks for all three.
They also start from zero on your business. A consultant who automated invoice coding or order entry eight times before knows where the exceptions hide, and your new hire will find them in production.
And when they leave, the knowledge of how everything works leaves with them.
The problem with consultants
Dependency. A consultant who builds something and leaves without teaching anyone inside your business to run it has left you a system nobody can change. When the business changes and the rules need updating, you are calling them again.
The fix is to make handover part of the scope. Someone in your business, named at the start, learns to operate what is built.
The hybrid that works
Use a consultant to find the opportunities and build the first two or three. Insist that the scope includes training one person inside your business to run them. That is usually someone already in finance or operations who is curious and organised.
That person becomes the internal owner. They handle exceptions, change the rules when suppliers or customers change, and call the consultant when something new is needed.
When the internal owner is at capacity and there is a steady stream of new work, hire a dedicated engineer. For many businesses under five hundred staff, that day does not arrive for years.
The short version
Use a consultant to find and build, an internal operator to run what is built, and a dedicated hire when the operator is full.