Search “AI consultant” with the name of any North Carolina city and you'll get a page of results that all say roughly the same thing: practical, results-driven, no hype. Some of them are exactly that. Some are IT shops that added the word “AI” to a service page last spring. Some are software resellers. Some are templated pages for cities the firm has never visited. The copy won't tell you which is which.
This is the list of questions we'd give a friend. It works on us, too — that's the point.
Start with what you'll own when it's over
The single most useful question: “When this engagement ends, what do I have, and can I run it without you?” Good answers sound like: a written roadmap you can hand to anyone; automations living in accounts you control; a playbook your team can follow; documentation. Bad answers sound like: access to our platform; ongoing management; a proprietary system.
There's nothing wrong with paying for ongoing help. There is something wrong with being unable to leave.
Insist on a number
AI consulting for a small business is a scoped job. An audit is a known amount of work; so is configuring a tool around one workflow. Anyone who's done it before can price it. “It depends” is fine for the first five minutes of a discovery call; it's not fine as the answer to “what does an audit cost?” We publish ours — $999 and $2,999 — and what the market charges alongside them. Ask any consultant for the same.
Ask which workflow, and why that one
The right consultant wants to start smaller than you expect. One department. One workflow. The one with the most hours in it and the clearest owner. They should be able to tell you, on the first call, roughly which workflow that is for your kind of business and what the payback math would look like — and they should be willing to say “this one isn't worth automating yet.”
If the proposal starts with a company-wide transformation, a six-month roadmap, or a platform, you are being sold an enterprise engagement at a small-business address.
Ask where your data goes
Every tool they recommend: does your data train the model? Is there a business tier whose terms say it doesn't? Which of your documents may touch which tools? A competent consultant answers per tool, in writing, before anything is set up. A practice, a clinic, or a firm should get this answer before the first invoice.
Ask for a sample deliverable
Not a case study — a deliverable. What does the audit document actually look like? If it's a deck about the future of AI, that's marketing. If it's a workflow map with specific tools, monthly costs, a ranked list, and a first-90-days plan, that's work. We show ours on the audit page so you can judge it before you pay for it.
The six red flags
- They lead with a tool. If the answer to “what should we do?” arrives before they've asked how your business runs, the tool is the product and you're the distribution channel.
- They won't name a price. For a scoped small-business job, refusal to quote is either inexperience or an hourly meter waiting to run.
- Everything is a transformation. Six-month roadmaps, change-management workstreams, steering committees. Fine for a company with an IT department. A ten-person business needs one workflow fixed by Thanksgiving.
- They take referral fees and don't say so. Ask. Reseller margin on a recommended tool isn't disqualifying — hiding it is.
- The data answer is a hand-wave. “It's all secure” is not an answer. Per tool, in writing, or walk.
- You can't leave. Proprietary platforms, automations in their accounts, playbooks that live in their heads. The best consultants make themselves optional on purpose.
What a good first engagement looks like
A free conversation where they ask more than they tell. A fixed-price audit of one workflow, producing a document you own. A recommendation that names tools, costs, and a first step — including, sometimes, the recommendation to do nothing yet. Then, if the numbers earn it, an implementation with a known price and a hand-off that leaves your team running it. Training last, once there's a real workflow to train on.
That's the standard. Hold everyone to it, including us — the discovery call is free, and the audit is $999 whether or not you hire us for anything after.
Common questions
What questions should I ask an AI consultant before hiring them?
Six good ones: What will I own when this is done? What does it cost, in a number? Which workflow are we starting with and why? Where does my data go? What happens if it doesn't pay back? And what's the smallest thing we could do first? A good consultant has a clear answer to all six.
Should I hire a solo AI consultant or a firm?
For a business under fifty people, what matters is whether they've done small-business configuration work — not the size of the firm. Ask for a sample deliverable. If it's a slide deck about AI trends, keep looking. If it's a workflow map with tools, costs, and a first-90-days plan, you've found the right kind of help.
Are AI certifications worth anything?
Some. A certification tells you someone studied; a sample deliverable tells you what they produce. Ask for both, weight the second.
How do I know if an AI consultant is just reselling software?
Ask directly whether they receive referral fees, commissions, or reseller margin on anything they recommend. Then ask what they'd recommend if the answer had to be a tool you already pay for. A vendor-neutral consultant will have a ready answer to both.
Published by McLean AI Solutions