An AI consulting scope should name the deliverables you can accept and use. Separate the initial discovery conversation from any assessment, pilot, implementation, training or ongoing support.
Compare the deliverables stage by stage
| Stage | What to agree | What to check separately |
|---|---|---|
| Project discovery | Business objective, candidate task, systems and whether a deeper assessment makes sense | NetSys project discovery is free; ask what a technical assessment would deliver. |
| Assessment | Use cases, data readiness, risks, platform recommendation and test proposal | Additional interviews, data cleanup or tenant changes outside the scope. |
| Pilot | One task, test data, acceptance criteria, reviewer and evaluation report | Rollout to other teams, production integrations or new workflows. |
| Build or rollout | Implementation, training, access controls, launch checks and handoff | Licenses, API usage and work outside the agreed system boundary. |
| Support | Who handles issues, what maintenance includes and how changes are quoted | Usage charges and new work such as additional integrations. |
Review the work you’ll keep
Ask whether you receive the use case inventory, test notes, recommendation and any configuration or documentation the scope names. Clarify who owns the accounts and what you can export if you choose another provider. If production data is needed, name the data owner and review access before the consultant starts. Decide who will approve a change to a real system and who can stop it.
An example scope that is easy to accept
A small office might commission an assessment of one intake process and a pilot that prepares draft records for staff to approve. The deliverable could be a ranked shortlist, a pilot test set and a report on accuracy and review time. Sending records directly into the live system, training additional departments and supporting the tool month to month would each need a named scope and owner. Write those decisions down before comparing offers.
Use the proposal checklist to turn the answers into line items you can review. For published benchmarks and typical NetSys rates, see the AI consulting pricing comparison.
Use a free discovery conversation to decide which stage you need. Explore NetSys AI consulting.
Related reading
Also on this topic: AI Consulting Costs for a Small Business: Market and NetSys Rates · Three Routes From an AI Assessment: Adopt, Automate or Build
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