AI readiness assessment vs AI strategy consulting.

Both promise clarity about AI. They deliver different things at different prices. Strategy consulting sells thinking: market context, operating model, a transformation narrative, usually open ended and five figures before anything is scoped. A readiness assessment sells a decision: which workflow to build first, what it returns, what it costs to run, and whether to build at all.

	AI strategy consulting	AI Readiness Assessment
Price	Typically five figures, scoped as you go	$2,500 fixed ($7,500 standard)
Duration	Six to twelve weeks, often longer	Two weeks
Deliverable	A strategy deck and recommendations	A written plan: workflows ranked by ROI and TCO, a 90 day build plan, an honest go or no-go
Who does the work	Analysts, reviewed by a partner	A senior engineer who would build it, in the room with the people doing the work
What happens next	You still need someone to build	Fee credited in full toward the build within 60 days
Best for	Enterprise wide operating model change	Mid market: one to three concrete systems that pay back this year

When strategy consulting is the right buy

If you are a 5,000 person company redesigning how three divisions work, buy strategy. The failure mode is buying it at mid market scale, where 95% of AI pilots already die between the deck and production (MIT NANDA, 2025), and what is missing is never another framework. It is a plan that survives contact with your real codebase, data, and team.

See exactly what the assessment produces: a redacted sample deliverable. Or run the free version first: the 20 question readiness checklist.