What does an AI consultant actually do?

A good AI consultant figures out where AI would actually help your specific business, and tells you plainly where it wouldn't. Most of the real work is understanding how your business runs. The AI part comes second.

I'll be honest about the title first: "AI consultant" is new, unregulated, and anyone can claim it. Some of the people using it are selling one specific tool and will discover, remarkably, that the tool is exactly what your business needs. So it's worth knowing what the job should look like.

What the work actually looks like

The consultants worth hiring all do some version of the same thing:

They start with your workflows, not a product. In my case that means reviewing 2 to 4 of your core processes: how work comes in, how it gets done, how it gets billed. Where's the friction, where do things get dropped, what eats hours that shouldn't.

They prioritize by impact, not by novelty. The output should be a short list: here's what's worth doing, here's roughly what it costs and saves, here's the order. Often the highest-impact item isn't AI at all. It's a form, a database, or a rule-based automation, and a consultant who won't tell you that is selling, not consulting.

They give you a clear call on each opportunity. Build now, run a small pilot, or wait. "Wait" is a real answer. Some things AI does poorly today it will do well in a year, and spending money early buys you nothing but bragging rights.

They implement, or hand you something implementable. A recommendation you can't act on is a very expensive PDF.

What it shouldn't look like

A demo of a chatbot on day one. A 60-page strategy deck. A recommendation list where every item happens to require the software they resell. Jargon where plain language would do.

How to vet one

Three questions do most of the work:

"What wouldn't you automate in my business?" A real answer proves they think in tradeoffs. No answer means everything looks like a nail.

"Explain your last project to me like I'm not technical." If they can't do it in the interview, your team will live with that gap for months.

"Who actually builds it?" "Our partners" can mean a handoff where all the thinking gets lost between the person who understood you and the person writing the code.

What this looks like with me

My version is a fixed-scope discovery engagement: $1,250, about a week, and you walk away with a prioritized list and a straight recommendation for each item, even if the recommendation is "don't build anything yet." The details are here, or book a free consultation and we'll see if it's even the right fit. If you want to see where I'd usually tell you to start, read what a small business should automate first.