The buying questions, answered in the open.
The Ampersand is where we think out loud. The Field Guide is where you shop: what AI help costs, whether you are ready for it, whether to hire or engage, and how to tell a builder from a hype merchant. Real prices throughout — ours included.
Start with the question you actually have.
Each guide does one job. The first two sentences under every heading answer the heading’s question, so you can skim for the number you came for and leave.
What an AI consultant costs in 2026.
The whole market’s ranges — hourly independents, boutique projects, Big Four minimums — and where our published $3,500–$45,000 sits. With a comparison table.
Guide 02The AI readiness checklist: 20 points.
A checklist you can run in an afternoon without hiring anyone. Score yourself, then see what the score means — including “wait.”
Guide 03AI consultant vs. in-house hire: the math.
Hiring, engaging, or doing nothing — three options with real costs on each, and the break-even points where the answer flips.
Guide 04How to choose an AI consultant.
Ten questions to ask any firm before you sign — including us. The good ones answer in plain English; the hype merchants answer in adjectives.
Guide 05What AI automation costs to run.
The monthly reality after the build: tokens, tools, maintenance — the $50–$500 band and what drives it. Including the case where running costs say don’t automate.
Guide 06Agents vs. automations vs. integrations.
Three words vendors use interchangeably, three different price tags. A decision path for which one your problem actually needs — often the cheaper one.
Guide 07How long AI implementation takes.
Ninety days per workflow, week by week — and what the two-week promise actually delivers. What makes builds faster, and what quietly stalls them.
Guide 08The AI readiness audit, defined.
What $3,500–$8,500 buys, what it deliberately doesn’t, and the redacted sample you can read before spending a dollar. Sometimes the finding is “wait.”
Guide 09Where your AI data actually goes.
Cloud, on-prem, and the middle path — matched to what’s actually in your documents. Written for the owner who signs the vendor agreement.
Guide 10ChatGPT subscriptions vs. custom AI.
The $25 seat wins more often than a consultant should admit. Where subscriptions genuinely stall, and the shelfware trap between the two.
Guide 11Signs you are not ready for AI.
Six signs the money would be wasted — and a 90-day plan that costs almost nothing instead. The guide that tells you not to hire us yet.
Guide 12How to scope a project a vendor can’t inflate.
The clauses that stop scope creep before it starts, the inflation patterns to catch in any proposal, and a template you can copy.
Guide 13The real ROI math, published.
Our calculator’s whole model in the open — per-industry rates, one worked example, and everything that breaks it. A model, never a promise.
Guide 14For the owner who is skeptical of AI.
You might be right — most projects fail. Why skepticism is the trait that makes builds succeed, and a first step that requires no belief at all.
These guides answer buying questions; The Ampersand answers understanding questions — how the machine works, what it cannot do, why everything happened at once. Read the guides when you are deciding. Read the essays when you want the decision to be a good one. Both are free, and neither ends in a countdown timer.
About the Field Guide.
Want the numbers?
The full price list is published — audits, sprints, managed services, all on one page.
Read the price list →01What is the Field Guide?+
Practical guides to the buying questions around AI consulting — what it costs, whether you are ready, hiring versus engaging, and how to vet a firm — written with our real published prices as the spine.
02How is the Field Guide different from The Ampersand?+
The Ampersand is weekly essays on how the machine works and what it means. The Field Guide answers commercial questions with numbers. Read the essays to understand; read the guides to decide.
03Are the prices in these guides real?+
Ours are the published list: audits $3,500–$8,500, sprints $12,000–$45,000, fixed in writing before work begins. Market figures are stated as typical ranges, not competitor quotes.
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