Anyone quoting you 'live in two weeks' for a production AI system is selling a demo. Anyone quoting a year is selling day rates. Here are the timelines that hold up in practice — and the factors on your side of the table that decide the pace.
Last updated: 11 June 2026
Realistic SME timelines: an AI audit takes a few weeks; a proof of concept typically around one to two months; a production implementation several months from start, depending on integrations. The pace is set less by the AI than by data access, decision speed and internal availability — the fastest projects are the ones where those three are arranged up front.
Duration follows the fixed-price ladder — each phase has a defined deliverable, so each has a boundable timeline:
| Phase | Typical duration | What determines it |
|---|---|---|
| AI audit & strategy (€2,500) | a few weeks | agenda room for interviews and the baseline measurement |
| Proof of concept (€20,000) | roughly 1–2 months | data access arranged? acceptance criteria agreed? test users available? |
| Production build (from €50,000) | several months | integrations (ERP/CRM), security review, staff training, go-live plan |
| Managed AI (€500/month) | ongoing | starts at go-live: monitoring, updates, improvements |
In post-project reviews the schedule was almost never set by model work. It is set by:
Two red flags in quotes. 'Production-ready in two weeks' means a demo without edge-case hardening, integration or training — the classic route to a failed pilot. '12–18 months programme' for a first SME use case means you are funding someone's utilisation, not your own payback. A first process live within a quarter-to-two is ambitious but honest; check what implementation costs for the budget side of the same question.
A few weeks in practice: interviews with process owners, a baseline measurement of the current process, and a ranked shortlist of use cases with a business case each. The limiting factor is usually agenda room, not analysis.
Typically around one to two months when data access is arranged and acceptance criteria are agreed up front — both conditions of our fixed €20,000 PoC. Without those arranged, PoCs drift; that drift is a choice, not a law of nature.
Count in months from project start, driven mainly by integrations with your ERP/CRM, security review and staff training. A realistic honest answer for a first SME process is 'within one to two quarters', not 'in two weeks'.
Yes, on your side: arrange data access before the start, set a weekly decision moment, and free up the process owner a few hours a week. Those three compress timelines more than any technical choice.
Quality maintenance — models, data and processes change, and unmanaged AI drifts. Our managed AI (beheer) covers monitoring, updates and improvements for €500 per month, so the system keeps earning what the business case promised.
The €2,500 audit gives you a ranked use-case shortlist with a realistic timeline per case — not a sales calendar.
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