There are more AI consulting firms in Australia than there were two years ago and most of them look the same on their websites. The differences show up in how they answer a few specific questions.
Ask what they have said no to
A consultant who has never told a client not to do an AI project is a salesperson. Ask for an example of a recommendation against a build, a vendor or a pilot, and what happened.
Ask who will do the work
The person in the sales meeting is often not the person who will sit with your team. Ask to meet them. Ask what else they are working on. Ask how many days a week you will get.
Ask how they price
Fixed price per stage is the answer you want. Discovery is quoted before it starts, the roadmap prices each build, and the next stage is only quoted once the current one is done. Hourly with no cap puts the risk on you. So does a single price for the whole program before anyone looks at your systems.
Ask about vendor relationships
Ask directly whether they take referral fees, resale margins or partner incentives from any software they recommend. If they do, their advice on which platform to buy is worth less. Many good firms have partnerships, and the honest ones tell you before you ask.
Ask how success is measured
The right answer involves a baseline. What is the error rate of the manual process today, how long does it take, what does it cost when it goes wrong. An automation is judged against that rather than against perfect. A consultant who cannot describe how they establish the baseline has not done this before.
Ask for an old reference
Anyone can show you a client from three months ago. Ask for one whose project went live a year or more ago and is still running. Ask that client who operates it now and how often the consultant is needed.
Boutique, independent or large firm
For a business under about five hundred staff, the choice is usually between an independent and a boutique.
An independent is the cheapest and often the most experienced person you will get in the room. The risk is capacity and continuity. If they are sick or busy, your project stops.
A boutique gives you a small team, some redundancy and usually a pattern library from doing the same kind of work repeatedly. Prices are higher than an independent and much lower than a large firm.
A large firm brings depth, governance and a brand your board recognises. It costs several times more and much of the depth is designed for enterprise change programs. If you have one finance team and one warehouse, you are paying for capability you will not use.
What we would want you to ask us
The same questions. Our about page lists what we will not do. Our case studies show the numbers and the parts we got wrong.