A workshop, or a consultant?
General AI consultancies typically run somewhere between $5,000 and $50,000 for a project, or roughly $100 to $300 an hour. They build you something and hand it over. A workshop is $175 a seat and teaches your team to build and run it themselves.
If you can name the exact system you need built, hire someone to build it. If what you have is a team doing too much by hand and no clear starting point, that is a different problem and a much cheaper one to solve.
Side by side
| Comparison | AI consultancy | This workshop |
|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | $5,000 to $50,000 a project | $175 a seat, or a priced private date |
| Hourly rate | About $100 to $300, more for senior | Not billed hourly |
| Who does the work | They do, then hand it over | Your team does, with me in the room |
| Restaurant experience | Sometimes, often not | 8 years in ops, 50+ stores |
| What you end up with | A system somebody else built | A team who can do it again |
| A big technical build | This is what they are for | Not what four hours buys |
| Time to first result | Weeks to months | The same afternoon |
| Good for | A defined project with a deadline | Getting a team unstuck and moving |
Consultancy figures are typical published industry ranges rather than any specific firm’s quote. Ask whoever you are considering for their real number.
The difference that actually matters
It is not the price. It is what is left behind.
A consultancy builds you a system. That system works exactly as long as it keeps working, and when it breaks or your business changes, you call them again. That is not a criticism, it is the model, and for a genuinely technical build it is the right one.
The workshop leaves you with people instead. If your GM built the thing, your GM can change it when the menu changes, and you do not need a purchase order to adjust a prep list. For most restaurant problems that is worth more than a better-engineered version you cannot touch.
The deliverable nobody opens twice.
Hire the consultant if
Your systems genuinely need integrating and somebody has to write code. You need a project run across months with someone accountable for delivery. You have a compliance or data requirement that needs doing properly by someone insured to do it. Or nobody on your team has four hours to give, in which case teaching them is not an option regardless of price.
In any of those cases a workshop is the wrong purchase and I will say so on the call rather than take the booking.
Somewhere in between
Most groups end up here. Start with the workshop because it is the cheapest way to find out whether any of this is worth your time, then talk about ongoing time if it is. That way you are buying more of something you have already seen work rather than committing to a project on a proposal.
More on workshops
- AI workshops for restaurant teams
What the four hours are and who they are for.
- What an AI workshop costs
Every price, published in full. No quote form.
- What happens in the four hours
Hour by hour, and what your team leaves with.
- Remote and national
Why virtual is the default and when to fly me out.
- Workshop or online course?
Including when the cheaper course is the better buy.
- Upcoming dates
Public sessions and how many seats are left.
Questions people actually ask
- Is a consultant ever the right answer?
- Often, and I will tell you when. If you need systems genuinely integrated, custom software written, or a project managed across months, hire someone to do that. A four-hour workshop is not a substitute for a build.
- Aren't you a consultant too?
- For the ongoing work, essentially yes, and it is priced as time rather than as a deliverable. The difference is what I am selling: I am teaching your people to own it, not building something that depends on me.
- Why is the workshop so much cheaper?
- Because your team does the work instead of me. That is the whole model. It is cheaper for you and it produces something more durable, and the tradeoff is that it needs four hours of your team's actual attention.
- What if we need building as well as teaching?
- Then we do both, and it is priced as ongoing time. If something needs building along the way I will build it, but that falls out of the time rather than being the thing you are buying.
- How do I know which one I need?
- Rough rule: if you can name the specific system you want built, you want a consultant. If what you actually have is a team drowning in manual work and no clear idea where to start, you want the workshop first.
Still deciding?
Take the free check first. Eight questions, no email, and you get the two things I’d fix in your building before I ask you for anything.