Belgian companies already use AI more than most of Europe: in 2025, 76.4% of Belgian enterprises with 250 or more employees used at least one AI technology, against 67.6% in the Netherlands and 55.0% across the EU, according to Eurostat table isoc_eb_ai. So the 2027 question for a Flemish or Brussels organisation is not whether to hire an AI consultant, but which kind. This list names nine firms that can do the work: Crux Digits first, then eight Belgian consultancies in alphabetical order, each with the buyer it suits better than us.
Disclosure: Crux Digits publishes this list and is listed first. We say why, and who the others are better for. The list is written for the IT manager, IT director, CIO, informatiemanager or security officer at a Belgian organisation of 250 to 5,000 FTE who already has an ICT partner or internal IT team and wants a specialist AI supplier next to it.
How did we choose the AI consultants on this list?
Each firm passed four checks on its own website on 29 October 2026: Belgian base, AI delivery, checkable specifics and a clear buyer fit.
First, a Belgian office or registered address, or for our own entry a published Flanders practice. Second, AI work it builds, not only advice: strategy, engineering or both, stated on its own pages. Third, public specifics we could check, such as offices, service lines, durations or prices. Fourth, an honest fit: for every entry we name the buyer for whom that firm is the better choice than Crux Digits.
What we did not do: we invented no ratings, scores, review counts or rankings. We quote prices only where a firm publishes them, and none of the eight Belgian firms publishes prices on the pages we checked. Client names appear only where the firm lists them itself. The list is not a ranking beyond our own pick: entries after ours are alphabetical. A firm we could not reach on verification day was left out rather than described from memory.
Why is Crux Digits our pick for Flemish and Brussels organisations?
Because it alone here publishes a fixed price per step and hands over all code, which suits an IT budget and an audit.
Crux Digits (Utrecht region, serving Flanders and Brussels)
Crux Digits is a Dutch AI consultancy and software company, founded in 2022, working in English and Dutch from the Utrecht region, about two hours from Antwerp. It works in three steps with published fixed prices: an AI audit at €2,500, a Production-ready MVP at €20,000 and production from €50,000, all excluding VAT. The audit fee is credited in full if the MVP follows within 60 days. Every step ends with something you keep, and production includes handover of all source code.
Crux Digits works alongside your ICT partner or internal IT team. It designs, builds and documents the AI system and the software around it, and it does not take over networks, workstations, hosting or a helpdesk. Discovery sessions and go-lives happen on site in Flanders and Brussels; the build runs remotely on a fixed weekly rhythm. Its Belgian reference is a licence plate recognition proof of concept for the Municipality of Antwerpen.
Best for: an organisation that wants one process built into its own systems at a price fixed in writing, and wants to own the code afterwards. Not the best fit if you need a team of dozens, a French-speaking delivery team, or one supplier that also runs your IT estate.
Which Belgian AI consultancies belong on a 2027 shortlist?
Eight Belgian firms passed our checks: AE, Agilytic, Arinti, dataroots, Datashift, Faktion, ML6 and Raccoons, listed alphabetically below.
AE (Leuven)
AE presents itself as a Belgian digital and AI consultancy with its head office in Leuven and, per its careers section, more than 450 people. Its offer runs through seven value streams, among them AI Strategy, Data Modernisation, Software Engineering, Legacy Modernisation and Hyperautomation, in four stages it calls Decide, Design, Build and Run and grow. Best for: an enterprise that wants one Belgian partner for AI, legacy modernisation and software engineering together, at a scale a specialist cannot staff.
Agilytic (Brussels)
Agilytic is a data and AI consultancy with offices in Brussels. It publishes its engagement shapes: an AI strategy and multi-year analytics roadmap in under eight weeks, a proof of value in eight to twelve weeks, and large-scale deployment from twelve weeks, starting with a free workshop and run with stage gates. For clients outside Belgium its site points to the offices of Artefact. Best for: a Brussels organisation that wants an analytics roadmap and a staged proof of value from a local data team.
Arinti (Kontich)
Arinti, based in Kontich near Antwerp, calls itself an AI-native consultancy and builder covering strategy, data and generative AI applications, organised as Advisory, Data and Engineering. Its site names public-sector organisations among its clients, including Stad Kortrijk, Stad Mechelen and VDAB. Best for: a Flemish public body or enterprise that wants a Flemish builder with public-sector references on its own site.
dataroots (Leuven)
dataroots is a data consultancy with its head office in Leuven and offices in Ghent and Utrecht, and states that it is part of the Talan Group. It covers data strategy and governance, AI including generative AI and MLOps, and cloud-native data platforms, with partners such as Snowflake, dbt Labs, Google Cloud, AWS and Microsoft. Best for: an organisation whose first problem is the data platform, and which wants the same team to put AI on top of it.
Datashift (Leuven, Mechelen, Ghent)
Datashift describes itself as the largest independent data and AI agency in the Benelux, with offices in Leuven, Mechelen, Ghent and Rotterdam. Its services are data and AI strategy, data engineering, AI and data science, business analytics and data governance. Best for: a bank, insurer, retailer or logistics firm that needs governance, BI and data engineering at scale before or alongside AI.
Faktion (Belgium)
Faktion calls itself a Belgian AI product studio, founded over ten years ago, that designs, builds and scales AI systems for enterprises. It sells three paths: AI strategy and advisory, an AI product studio as a service, and AI capabilities as a service, in which its experts join your team. Best for: an industrial or HR-services enterprise that wants an embedded AI team to build internal capability over time.
ML6 (Ghent)
ML6 is an AI engineering company with its Belgian office in Ghent and offices in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Berlin and Munich. It offers AI strategy, governance and literacy training, machine learning and agentic AI engineering, and its own Unum platform. Best for: a large multi-country enterprise that wants a big AI engineering firm and a platform of its own across several countries.
Raccoons (Leuven)
Raccoons is a Leuven AI consultancy and product studio working in three steps it calls Strategize, Build and Grow. Its site shows work such as a knowledge assistant for Bank Van Breda and a speech-to-report tool it says the cities of Mechelen and Bruges use. Best for: an organisation that wants a designed AI product or user-facing experience, not only a back-office process.
Large AI engineering firm or small specialist: which fits 250 to 5,000 FTE?
Choose by scope: a programme across several departments needs a large firm, one process in one system is a specialist's job.
A large firm such as ML6, AE or Datashift brings bench depth, several disciplines and the ability to staff a multi-year programme. You pay for coordination layers and you rarely know at signing which engineers will do the work. A specialist brings a short line from the person who scopes the work to the person who writes the code, and fixed scope per step. You accept fewer people and a narrower range.
A useful decision rule: count the systems the first release touches. One or two systems, such as an ERP and a document store, and a specialist is usually enough. Four or more systems and three or more departments, and you are buying a programme, which large firms are built for. Either way, make your own ICT partner part of the design review, because identity, hosting and network access stay with them.
What does cao nr. 39 mean for an AI project in a Belgian company?
If an AI system affects 50% and at least 10 workers of one job category, cao nr. 39 requires consultation three months ahead.
Collective labour agreement no. 39 of the National Labour Council, concluded on 13 December 1983, applies to companies with at least 50 employees. When the employer decides to invest in a new technology with important collective consequences for employment, work organisation or working conditions, it must give written information on the technology, the reasons for it and its social consequences, and consult employee representatives, no later than three months before implementation starts. The information goes to the works council, or to the trade union delegation where there is no works council.
For a 250 to 5,000 FTE organisation this is often the real start date of an AI project. Ask every firm on your shortlist when its plan puts the works council information, and whether its proof of value runs on a scope small enough to sit under the threshold. A consultant who does not know cao nr. 39 will hand you a timeline that slips by a quarter.
Is there still Flemish funding for AI consultancy in 2027?
Not through the kmo-portefeuille: VLAIO reports its 2026 budget used up, and from 1 January 2027 the scheme no longer funds training and advice.
The kmo-portefeuille page states that the 2026 subsidy budget is used up and no new applications are possible, with an update dated 15 October 2026. VLAIO's announcement of 1 October 2026 says the Flemish Government decided to end the scheme and that from 1 January 2027 companies can no longer use it to fund training and advice. Training costs for a professional activity remain tax-deductible, VLAIO adds.
For AI that involves real research and development, VLAIO still lists development and research projects: 25 to 60% of the project budget, with a minimum of €25,000 and a maximum of €3 million, for new products, services or processes. That route fits innovation, not the purchase of standard consultancy. Budget a 2027 AI project without subsidy, and treat a VLAIO project as a separate question for genuinely new technology.
How should an IT director run the shortlist?
Send the same six questions to three firms and compare the written answers, not the presentations.
1. Who writes the code, by name, and does that person stay from scope to handover?
2. What does the first step cost, and what do we keep if we stop after it?
3. In whose repository does the code live from the first commit, and does the copyright transfer?
4. Which tasks stay with our ICT partner: identity, hosting, network, monitoring? Put it in a RACI.
5. Where in the plan is the cao nr. 39 information to the works council, and how long before go-live?
6. Which language does the team deliver in: Dutch, French or English, and for the documentation too?
If your project touches network or information systems in scope of NIS2, add a seventh question on supplier security, covered in our post on NIS2 in Belgium and AI suppliers. For the wider Benelux market, our guide to AI consultants in the Netherlands applies the same method to Dutch firms, and our analysis of Belgian AI adoption has the data behind the opening figures.
Where does Crux Digits fit?
Crux Digits is the specialist on this list.
It works one process at a time, with fixed prices per step and code handed over, next to your ICT partner. We do not run infrastructure, hosting or a helpdesk, and we do not replace the large firms above for a multi-department programme. If your first AI project is one process in one or two systems in Flanders or Brussels, we are a fair first call, and the firms above are the right comparison.
How we work in Belgium, step by step, is on AI consultant in Belgium.
Last updated: 29 October 2026.
A consultant tells you where AI pays off; Crux Digits also builds it. A fixed price per step, one named expert, and the Belgian rules and funding built in.
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