Yaffe AI › Guides › How to choose an AI consulting firm
How to choose an AI consulting firm
Choose an AI consulting firm by how it begins: real consultants start by studying your business; resellers start by demoing their product. Ask what happens if AI turns out to be the wrong answer, who personally does the work, and how success is measured — the answers separate diagnosis from sales.
What questions expose a good AI consultant?
Seven work reliably. What do you sell besides advice? (Tool resellers have a thumb on the scale.) What happens if AI isn't the right answer for us? (Honest firms lose that engagement gladly.) Who exactly will do our work? (Partners sell; juniors deliver — unless it's founder-led.) How will success be measured, against what baseline? Can we see the plan in writing before implementation? Have you built with these models yourselves, in production? And: what have you told a client not to do?
What are the red flags?
A proposal that arrives before anyone has studied your operation. Guaranteed outcomes quoted before a baseline exists. 'AI transformation' language with no named workflows. Pressure to start with the largest possible engagement. A stack of partnership badges from the tools they'll inevitably recommend. And the subtlest one: no examples of advising a client against AI.
Big firm, boutique, or independent?
Big firms bring headcount and carry enterprise programs, at enterprise prices and with juniors doing much of the work. Boutiques and independents bring the actual senior person and move faster, but check they've truly built, not just advised. The honest answer: match the size of the firm to the size of the problem — most growing businesses need a sharp diagnosis and a few well-built systems, not a transformation office.
Frequently asked questions
How do we compare proposals fairly?
Reduce each to three numbers: cost of the diagnosis, cost of the first build, and the measurable payback each claims against your baseline. Vagueness on any of the three is your answer.
Does industry experience matter?
Process experience matters more than industry badges — bottlenecks repeat across industries. What's non-negotiable is production experience with the technology itself.
How does Yaffe AI answer its own seven questions?
We sell nothing but the work, the founder does every engagement personally, the diagnosis comes in writing before any build, and 'AI isn't worth it here' is a real outcome we deliver. Ask the rest on the call.
When should we walk away mid-engagement?
When deliverables drift from the written plan or the success metric quietly changes. A good firm re-anchors to the baseline; a bad one re-negotiates the definition of success.
Find out what AI is worth in your business
A free 30-minute diagnostic call. You describe how the business runs; you leave with an honest first read — even if the answer is "not yet".
Request a diagnostic callPrefer email? [email protected] — a person reads it and replies within one business day.