AI Consulting Services
Artificial intelligence consulting, priced and scoped like real work.
Most AI consulting starts with a discovery call and ends with a deck. This starts with a free 3-minute review that tells you where AI actually pays in your business, and only then talks about building anything.
What are AI consulting services?
AI consulting services help a business decide where AI saves time or money, then build those workflows and train the team to use them.
Here that means four things: a readiness review that finds where AI pays, an implementation roadmap, the build and integration of the chosen workflows, and training so your team keeps using them. Generative engine optimisation is a separate programme for businesses that also need to be found by AI search. The table sets out each service with its typical time and how it is priced.
| Service | What it is | Typical time | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Readiness Review | A 6-question assessment that returns an instant, industry-specific report naming the two or three workflows with the highest payback in your business. | 3 minutes, instant report | Free |
| AI implementation roadmap | The review turned into a sequenced plan: what to build first, what it touches, what it should save, and what has to be true before it works. | About a week | EUR 1,500, credited against a build within 60 days |
| Workflow build and integration | Building the chosen workflows into the systems you already run, then testing them against real jobs rather than demo data. | 2 to 4 weeks per workflow | From EUR 3,500 per workflow |
| Team training and handover | Showing the people who will use it how it works and where it fails, so adoption survives the first awkward week. | Half a day per team | Included in implementation |
| Generative engine optimization | Getting the business cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI when buyers ask for a recommendation in your category. | 21 working days | EUR 6,500 to EUR 7,500 |
AI strategy consulting
What does AI strategy consulting involve for a small business?
It means choosing the two or three AI workflows worth building first, in what order and why, and checking your data, tools and risks beforehand.
In a large company an AI strategy can mean a long transformation programme. In a business of 5 to 50 people it should be smaller and more useful than that: a short list of the jobs where AI would save real hours, ranked so the first one pays for the attention it takes. The output is the implementation roadmap in the table above, a written plan of what to build first, what it touches, what it should save and what has to be true before it works.
In practice our AI strategy consulting covers five things:
- Where the hours go. Which repeated jobs eat the week, who does them and in which software.
- Which uses of AI to rank first. Each candidate workflow weighed on hours saved, running cost, risk and how hard it is to connect to your systems.
- Whether the data and tools are ready. A workflow built on messy data or a system with no way in gets flagged now, not halfway through a build.
- Rules for using AI safely. What data goes into which tool, who checks the output and who can switch it off.
- What not to do yet. A good strategy is as clear about the ideas to park as the ones to build.
What does an AI strategy consultant do?
An AI strategy consultant turns "we should be doing something with AI" into a short, ranked plan. Here that consultant is Ger Devereux, who built the first AI workflows at Shamrock Electrical, the wholesaler he runs for its owner, before offering the work to others. The difference from a large-firm AI strategy engagement is scale: you get a written roadmap sized for a business of 5 to 50 people, built from the free review, rather than a transformation programme, and the plan carries straight into implementation with the same firm.
Strategy on its own saves nothing, so it leads straight into building. What that involves is set out on AI implementation services, and if the plan points towards generative AI for content, documents or customer answers, see generative AI consulting. For a plain explanation of the role itself, read what an AI consultant does.
Why does the engagement start with a free review?
Because most AI projects fail on the choice of project, not the technology. Picking the wrong first workflow costs more than building the right one slowly.
The review asks six questions about how your business runs, not about AI. It returns an instant report naming the workflows with the shortest path to a measurable result in your industry, with rough hours saved per week and time to first result. If nothing in it is worth building, that is a legitimate outcome and it has cost you three minutes.
Only after that does anything get scoped or priced. There is no discovery call to sit through first, and no obligation attached to the report. If you would rather see the mechanics before starting, the AI readiness checklist covers the same ground manually.
Which businesses are these services built for?
Established owner-managed businesses with roughly 5 to 50 staff, where repetitive admin is eating the owner's week and there is real revenue to protect.
In practice that means construction and trades, professional services such as accounting, legal and recruitment, ecommerce and retail, manufacturing and distribution, and marketing agencies. There are worked examples by sector on the industry pages, and a version of this page written for smaller owner-run firms at AI consulting for small business.
It is not built for pre-revenue startups, for businesses that want a custom model trained from scratch, or for anyone looking for a research engagement. Those are real needs and they are somebody else's speciality.
How is this different from an AI automation agency?
A consultancy decides what is worth building and why before anything gets built. An automation agency usually starts from a tool you have already chosen and wires it up.
Both are legitimate. If you already know exactly which process to automate and which platform you are using, an automation agency will get there faster and cheaper. If you are not sure which of fifteen annoyances is actually costing you money, choosing first is the whole job, and choosing wrong is what makes AI projects fail.
Clever Merchants does both halves, but always in that order. Where AI search visibility is the goal rather than internal time saved, that is a separate programme run by our generative engine optimization side.
Proof on a real business: Shamrock Electrical
Yes. The methodology was implemented on Shamrock Electrical, an Irish electrical wholesaler the same founder runs for its owner, before it was offered to anyone else.
That business went from being named in 1 of 10 buyer questions in April 2026 to first of five retailers in ChatGPT by June, and Perplexity and Google Gemini cited it too. The full write-up, including what did not work, is in the Shamrock Electrical case study.
Questions people ask about AI consulting services
What does an AI consulting company do?
It works out which jobs in a business AI should take on and in what order, then builds those workflows into the existing tools and trains the team to use them. At Clever Merchants that starts with the free AI Readiness Review and carries on with maintenance after the build.
How are AI consulting services priced?
The review is free, a written roadmap is €1,500 and a workflow build starts from €3,500, with the final price depending on how many workflows you run and what systems they touch. The GEO programmes have fixed public prices.
How long does an AI consulting engagement take?
The review takes about three minutes and reports instantly. A first workflow is usually live within two to four weeks. The GEO programmes run to a fixed 21 working days.
Do you provide AI consulting services remotely?
Yes. Everything is delivered remotely, so a firm in Boston or Brisbane gets the same engagement as one in Dublin. Most of the work happens in your own tools.
What does AI strategy consulting involve for a small business?
Choosing the two or three AI workflows worth building first, in what order and why, then checking your data, tools and risks before anything is built. It ends with a written roadmap rather than a slide deck, for 1,500 euro credited against any build bought within 60 days.
What does an AI strategy consultant do?
An AI strategy consultant works out where AI would save a business real hours, ranks those uses by payback and risk, checks the data and tools are ready, and writes the plan for what to build first. At Clever Merchants that consultant is Ger, and the plan leads straight into implementation.
Which businesses are these AI consulting services not for?
Pre-revenue startups, and businesses wanting a research project or a custom model trained from scratch. The work suits established firms with repetitive admin and real revenue.
Find out where AI pays in your business
Six questions, about three minutes, an instant report for your industry, and a personal follow-up from Ger the same working day. Free, no card, no obligation.
Take the free AI Readiness Review