What does hiring an AI consultant actually get you?
Hiring an AI consultant means bringing in someone who works out where AI genuinely pays off, scopes it around a real business problem, and then builds and ships the solution — not a slide deck. A good consultant starts with your data and your processes rather than the technology, so you spend budget on the use cases that move the P&L instead of experiments that stall.
When to hire (and when not to)
Hire an AI consultant when you have repetitive work that costs real money, data you are not using, or an idea you want to validate before investing. It is usually not worth it if the problem is purely organisational, the data does not exist yet, or you only want a generic chatbot a no-code tool already solves. An honest partner will tell you when AI is not the answer.
What does it cost to hire an AI consultant?
At Crux Digits we work in three fixed, transparent steps: an AI Audit & Strategy at €2,500, a Proof of Concept at €20,000, and a Production Launch from €50,000 (excl. VAT). Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute consultation so you can scope the value before you commit. See the full pricing.
Hire a consultant or build an in-house team?
Building an internal AI team is the right call once AI is core to your product and you have steady, full-time work for specialists. For most mid-market companies, hiring a consultant first is faster and lower-risk: you get senior data scientists and ML engineers on day one, ship a working result in weeks, and decide on an in-house build from evidence rather than a guess. Many clients use us to build the first system and upskill their own people alongside it.
How we work
Fixed scope, fixed price, one named expert as your point of contact, and the EU AI Act and GDPR built in from day one. We are based in Nieuwegein, in the Utrecht region, and work with companies across the Netherlands and the Benelux on-site and remotely.