Ask five AI consultants what automation costs and you'll get five non-answers, usually ending in "it depends on your needs." That's unhelpful, so here are actual numbers — the ranges we work in, the pricing models you'll encounter in the Sydney market, and the questions that separate a real implementation partner from someone selling a slide deck.

The honest price bands

Based on the projects we deliver, most Sydney small and mid-sized businesses fall into three bands:

A single-workflow pilot: A$2,500–5,000. One painful process, automated end to end. Examples: quote follow-up for a trade business, new-enquiry intake for a clinic, document triage for an accounting firm. Small, contained, and live in two to four weeks. The point of a pilot is not the pilot — it's proving the ROI maths on your own data before you commit to anything bigger.

Website + system integration or multi-workflow automation: A$5,000–25,000. This is where most of our engagements land. Connecting a website to booking, payments and CRM; automating several related workflows; building the review and approval steps that make it safe. Delivery takes weeks to a couple of months, and includes team training — because a system nobody uses is a system you bought, not a system you have.

Ongoing support: A$300–800/month. Automation is not "set and forget." Forms change, APIs move, staff turnover happens. A support retainer covers monitoring, fixes, small improvements and a periodic review of what else is worth automating. Treat a consultant who promises zero maintenance as a consultant who plans to be unavailable.

If you're being quoted well outside these bands — either direction — check what's actually included before comparing on price alone.

The three pricing models you'll encounter

Fixed project fee. A defined scope, a defined price. This is how we prefer to work after an assessment, because both sides know what they're buying. The risk is scope: a vague "AI transformation" quote that's actually a fixed fee for something undefined will grow.

Day rate or hourly. Common with strategy consultants. Fine for advice; dangerous for implementation, because the incentive runs the wrong way — the longer it takes, the more they earn. If you pay this way, demand fixed-scope milestones.

Monthly subscription for a platform. Growing fast. Sometimes good value; sometimes you're renting a generic tool plus paying for onboarding. The question to ask: if you cancel in six months, do the workflows keep running? If the answer is no, you've built your operations on rented ground.

Why the cheapest pilot usually fails

Every few months a business shows us a "cheap AI pilot" someone else built — $800 here, an overseas freelancer there. Two predictable outcomes:

  1. It demos well and dies quietly. No error handling, no monitoring, no owner. The first time the form changes or the API hiccups, it stops, nobody notices, and three weeks later a customer fell through the gap. The trust damage costs more than the project ever saved.
  2. It can't be extended. It was built as a hack, not a foundation. The second workflow doesn't plug into the first, so every new automation starts from scratch.

A pilot's job is to make your second project cheaper and faster. Judge it on that, not just the price tag.

Six questions to ask any AI consultant before signing

  1. "Which of my workflows specifically, and what does the current one cost in hours?" If they propose technology before understanding your process, they're selling tools, not outcomes.
  2. "Where does our data go, and what never gets touched?" There should be a written answer — data principles, not a vague reassurance. (Ours are public: we never connect public systems to clinical records, and high-risk actions keep a human in the loop.)
  3. "What happens if this breaks on a Saturday?" Monitoring, alerting, and who gets the call.
  4. "Who trains our team, and is that included?" Adoption is part of delivery. Training as an extra invoice is a red flag.
  5. "What will this cost to run in twelve months?" Including licences, API usage, and support.
  6. "Can I see a delivered system, not a demo?" Case studies with named outcomes, ideally in your industry.

For what a first automation engagement actually involves, see AI Workflow Automation and Business AI Assessment.

A sane first step that costs nothing

You'll notice we don't quote from a sales call. Our first step is the Business AI Scan — a structured ten-minute intake covering your goals, systems and repetitive workflows. We send back a written opportunity report: which workflows are worth automating first, roughly what each would save, and an honest note on what isn't worth touching. Qualified Sydney businesses can then apply for a complimentary two-hour on-site assessment before any proposal exists.

Worst case, you get a clear written picture of where your time is going. Best case, you've found the workflow that pays for everything else.