How Much Does An AI Consultant Or AI Training Cost For A Small Business? (UK, 2026)
What UK small businesses pay for AI help in 2026: DIY, courses, hourly AI consultants, done-with-you programmes and retainers, with real price ranges.
Short answer: hiring an AI consultant or expert to set AI up properly in a UK small business costs anywhere from £0 (you do it yourself) to £3,000+ a month (an ongoing consultant). Most small businesses who want it done well, without hiring anyone, land somewhere between £1,500 and £4,500 for a focused piece of done-with-you work.
That range is massive, I know. I did the research on this properly when I priced my own 1:1 work, so here’s what you get at each level.
What UK small businesses pay for AI help
The five ways in, and what they cost
1. DIY with free guides - £0 to £20 a month. You pay for the AI tool (Claude’s paid plan is around £20 a month) and learn from free material, like my free guides library. Brilliant if you’ve got time and you like tinkering. The catch is… the time.
2. A course - roughly £30 to £400. Self-paced, one price, and you get a structure. You still do all the setting up yourself, on your own evenings. (Mine is The Claude Kickstart, if you want the weekend version.)
3. An hourly AI consultant - roughly £150 to £300 an hour in the UK. Good for one specific problem (“why has my inbox automation stopped working?”). Less good for building a whole system, because the hours add up FAST.
4. A done-with-you programme - roughly £1,500 to £4,500. Usually 6 to 12 weeks of 1:1 support where someone builds the systems into your business alongside you. You finish owning them and knowing how they work. What that looks like week to week.
5. A monthly retainer - roughly £1,500 to £3,000+ a month. Ongoing strategy and support, usually for businesses with a team and a bigger budget.
What drives the price up (or down)
- How many areas you want covering. Inbox and admin only is a smaller job than inbox, invoicing, team timesheets and content.
- Advice or building. Someone telling you what to do costs less than someone building it with you. Building is also the bit most people get stuck on.
- Support between sessions. Being able to message someone when a thing breaks on a Tuesday afternoon is where a lot of the value is.
- Your tools. If your business already runs on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, most of the plumbing is there. A mess of old logins and spreadsheets takes longer to untangle (been there, untangled that, many times).
How to work out if it’s worth it for you
Do the maths on your own admin first. Count the hours a week you spend on the stuff you hate (chasing invoices, reports, the inbox, timesheets) and multiply by what your hour is worth. Not sure which jobs even count? Here are 12 small businesses are automating.
At 10 hours a week and £40 an hour, that’s about £20,800 a year being your own admin department. Against that, even the top end of a done-with-you programme pays for itself in a few months.
There’s a free calculator for exactly this on my AI consultancy page, if you’d rather not do it on the back of an actual receipt.
What I charge (because you’ll want to know)
My 1:1 AI consultancy is six weeks, fully tailored to your business, for £3,000. Four calls, WhatsApp support between them, and the systems built into your real inbox, clients and team. The founders I mentor on UK council-funded AI programmes save 10+ hours a week once this stuff is wired in.
The exact figure depends on what we’re building, and we agree it on a free 30-minute call before anything starts. Here’s how it works.
The cheapest option that works
Start with one job. Pick the admin task you’d most love to hand off, and get that one working before you spend a penny more. This is where I’d start. If it sticks, you’ll know exactly what the next one is worth to you.
Quick answers
How much does an AI consultant cost in the UK?
Roughly £150 to £300 an hour for an hourly consultant, £1,500 to £4,500 for a done-with-you programme, and £1,500 to £3,000+ a month for an ongoing retainer. DIY with a paid AI plan costs around £20 a month.
Is AI training for a small business worth the money?
Work out your own admin cost first: hours a week on admin, times your hourly rate, times 52. At 10 hours a week and £40 an hour that's about £20,800 a year, so a programme that wins back even half of it pays for itself quickly.
Can I get free AI training for my small business in the UK?
Sometimes. Some UK councils fund AI programmes for local small businesses, and there are free guides online (including mine). Check your local council or growth hub for funded places.