How we engage
How we scope and engage
This is a qualification instrument, not a rate card. You should be able to tell quickly whether we are the right size of partner for the problem you have.
How much does an AI or automation project cost?
It depends on scope, and we do not publish figures. What we do publish is how the work is packaged: a focused starting engagement is fixed-scope and fixed-timeline, larger platform work is quoted after a paid discovery, and the price is agreed in writing before anything begins. Ask in a first conversation and you will get a real number early.
Engagement models
Six ways to work with us
Named, fixed-scope packages rather than an open-ended retainer with a day rate attached to it.
| Model | What it is | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|
| Readiness Assessment | A structured review of your processes, data, and systems, ending in a prioritized roadmap you own whether or not you continue with us. | One to two weeks |
| Stalled Pilot Rescue | We take an AI pilot that never shipped and get it to production: data ownership, permissions, error handling, deployment, and a named owner. Fixed scope, fixed price. | Four to six weeks |
| Measurement Audit | We verify that the numbers your business runs on are true: tracking, conversion and revenue reporting, app telemetry, and the path from an event to the report. You get the defects we find, ranked by what they cost, with the evidence. | One to three weeks |
| Launch Sprint | One production-ready outcome: an AI agent, an automated process, or a certified dashboard set. Fixed price, fixed timeline, live at the end. | Four to six weeks |
| Platform Build | A multi-capability system spanning build, operate, and grow. Scoped and quoted after a paid discovery rather than estimated in advance. | Three to six months |
| Growth Retainer | Ongoing intelligent marketing: content structure, AI-search visibility, campaign automation, and iteration against what the numbers show. | Monthly |
| Support & Care | Monitoring, updates, governance review, and small enhancements to systems already in production — ours or someone else's. | Monthly |
We do not publish prices. Scope, timeline, and cost are agreed in writing before any work starts — ask in a first conversation and you will have a real figure early.
Scope
What is always included, and what is not
The second list matters more than the first. Most disputes about scope are about something a client assumed was included and nobody said otherwise.
Always included
- Documentation written for whoever maintains this after we leave.
- A named owner on your side, agreed before the build starts.
- Source code and configuration ownership — you keep everything we produce.
- Governance setup: environments, permissions, and a release path.
- A handover session, recorded, with the person who will run it.
Not included
- Third-party license costs, which you buy directly rather than through us.
- Cloud consumption, which stays on your subscription so you can see it.
- Content writing on marketing engagements, unless it is scoped explicitly.
- Round-the-clock incident cover, which is a separate arrangement.
Questions
About working together
Why are there no prices on this page?
Because a range wide enough to be honest across every situation we meet would be too wide to tell you anything. What decides the number is the state of your data, how many systems have to agree with each other, and who has to approve the result — and we cannot see any of that from here. We would rather give you a real figure in a first conversation than a published one you have to discount. Ask, and you will get it early, before either of us has spent much time.
So when do we find out what it costs?
In the first conversation, once we understand the shape of the problem. Scope, timeline, and price are agreed in writing before any work begins, and a fixed-scope engagement stays at the figure we agreed. Nothing about the commercial side is discovered late.
How are change requests handled?
A fixed-scope engagement has a written scope, and anything outside it is quoted separately before it is started rather than absorbed and invoiced later. Small clarifications are part of the work. A genuine change of direction is a conversation about what to drop or what to extend, and you decide which.
What happens if the sprint does not deliver?
The framing step exists to make that unlikely: we agree the outcome, the measure, and the definition of done before any build starts. If something we discover partway makes the original outcome unachievable, we tell you at that point rather than at the end, and we agree how to proceed — including stopping.
Do you work with organizations outside the United States?
Our service area is the United States, and Tennessee is the home market. We have worked across time zones before and it is workable, but a materially different timezone changes how the engagement runs and we would rather discuss that upfront than discover it in week three.
Can we start smaller than a Launch Sprint?
Yes. A Readiness Assessment is the smallest sensible starting point and produces something useful on its own: a picture of your processes, data, and systems with a prioritized set of actions. Several clients have taken that away and acted on it internally, which is a legitimate outcome.
We already have a pilot that never shipped. Where does that start?
With the Stalled Pilot Rescue, which exists for exactly that situation. We start from what you already built rather than from a blank page, find what stopped it — usually data ownership, permissions, or the absence of a named owner rather than the model itself — and take it to production on a fixed scope. If the honest answer is that the pilot should be rebuilt rather than rescued, we say so at the assessment rather than partway through.
Next step
Tell us the problem and we will tell you the number.
We would rather give you a real figure in a first conversation than publish a range broad enough to be meaningless. Ask early — it is the second thing we talk about.
We reply to every message, usually within one business day.
info@aqlyst.ai · (901) 232-2944