How much does an AI consultancy cost in the UK?
Nobody publishes prices, everybody asks. Here are the real shapes UK AI consultancy pricing takes in 2026, the ranges behind them, and the only question that makes a price good or bad.
AI consultancy pricing in the UK is opaque because most engagements are scoped individually. But the shapes are consistent, and knowing them puts you in a stronger buying position.
How do UK AI consultancies charge: day rates, fixed fees or retainers?
Day rates. Freelance AI engineers and small consultancies run roughly £500 to £1,200 a day; big-name firms charge multiples of that. Day rates suit exploratory work but give you no certainty about what you'll end up with.
Fixed-fee diagnostics. An audit of where automation pays in your business typically lands between £1,500 and £15,000 depending on the size of the operation; most UK firms that publish a price start between £1,500 and £5,000 (published AI audit prices compared). The deliverable matters more than the number: you should leave with a priced, ranked plan you own, whoever builds it.
Fixed-fee builds. A focused workflow automation might be £5,000 to £25,000. Bespoke platforms (the software a business runs around) range from £25,000 to well into six figures. The honest variable is integration: connecting cleanly to your existing tools is often more work than the AI itself.
Retainers. Running, monitoring and improving live automation is usually a monthly retainer, commonly £1,000 to £5,000 depending on how much is running. Automation without monitoring degrades quietly; budget for this from the start. These are typical UK market ranges gathered across the sector; M22 Consultancy's own published price is simply the AI Audit from £1,500, a fixed fee agreed before day one.
How do you judge whether an AI build is worth the price?
A £20,000 build that removes £8,000 a month of manual work is cheap. A £5,000 build that saves an hour a week is expensive. Price means nothing without the return next to it, which is why the first thing to buy is the analysis, not the build. Any consultancy worth hiring will show you the ROI maths and let you check it.
What are the red flags when an AI consultancy quotes a price?
- A price before they've seen your operation. Real scoping requires looking.
- No mention of who owns the system. You should own what you pay for.
- "Pilot" pricing with no path to production. Pilots that never ship are the industry's quiet scandal.
- Vague deliverables. "AI strategy" is not a deliverable. A costed build plan is.
For what should be inside a good diagnostic, see how to run an AI audit on your own business, the same framework M22 sells, and you can run a version of it yourself; or what is an AI audit? for the short version. If the question behind the price is really "would this be cheaper than hiring someone", see AI agent cost vs salary for the worked numbers.
How does M22 help with this?
M22 Consultancy publishes its audit price: the AI Audit starts at £1,500, a fixed fee agreed before day one and sized to your business rather than a set number of days. M22 also fixes the build fee before work starts, and clients own the code, data and documentation M22 delivers. You leave the audit with a process map, opportunities ranked by expected return and delivery cost, and a costed build plan you keep, with no obligation to build anything. Book a thirty-minute call to get a price for your own business, or see how UK AI audit prices compare.