How much does an AI-native transformation cost?
The honest answer is that it's an operating change, not a project, so it prices as leadership over 6–18 months plus the AI spend itself. Here's the full stack of numbers, published.
Strategy in the tens of thousands.
Transformation as a monthly run-rate.
An AI-native transformation isn't a fixed-price project, because what's being rebuilt is how the company works: the SDLC, the operating workflows, the team. It prices in three layers. The strategy layer is fixed: a Diagnostic from $20,000 and the full Roadmap & Architecture Sprint from $35,000. The leadership layer is monthly: $18,000 a month fractional, or $30,000 a month embedded, typically for 6–18 months.
The third layer is the spend the transformation redirects: model and tooling costs, the agentic systems you build, and the hires. That's not my fee, but a real strategy budgets it honestly, with evals and cost controls attached, because AI spend without measurement is how companies end up paying for leverage they never get.
Staged this way, the decision is never a leap. Twenty thousand dollars buys the read. Thirty-five buys the plan. Only when the plan is credible do you commit to the monthly engagement, and the leverage should start showing up in cost, speed and quality inside the first quarter.
Related searches: AI transformation cost, AI-native company, cost of adopting AI, enterprise AI transformation pricing.
What I charge, exactly.
Three stages, each an off-ramp. All prices USD.
The Diagnostic
Where AI creates real leverage in your product and operations, and where it's a distraction. Plus a 90-day plan you can act on with or without me.
AI-Native Roadmap & Architecture Sprint
The complete strategy: roadmap, architecture and model choices, economics, team and governance. Ready to build against.
Transformation Leadership
I run the change: ship the systems, rewire the workflows, hire and upskill the team, and hold it to measurable leverage.
All prices USD. The full offering is on the AI-Native Transformation page. Email me ↗
What founders & boards ask about price.
How much does an AI transformation cost overall?
For a $10M–$50M company working with me: a Diagnostic from $20,000 and the full strategy sprint from $35,000, both fixed-scope, then $18,000–$30,000 a month in transformation leadership for six to eighteen months, plus the AI spend the roadmap itself budgets (models, tooling, hires). Staged so each step is an off-ramp. All prices USD.
Why isn't it a fixed-price project?
Because the deliverable is a company that operates differently. Workflows, the SDLC and the org chart change over months, and the state of the art moves every quarter. Fixed pricing that pretends otherwise either pads the number heavily or quietly narrows the scope back down to a pilot.
What determines whether it's $18K or $30K a month?
Time in the seat. At roughly two days a week ($18,000 a month) I lead the transformation alongside your existing leadership. Embedded at three or more days ($30,000 a month) fits companies where I'm also covering the CTO role or the change is organization-wide and fast-moving.
When does the spend start paying back?
The leverage should be visible inside the first quarter: cheaper cost-per-outcome in the workflows you rebuilt, faster delivery in the SDLC, and quality you can measure with evals rather than anecdotes. If it isn't showing up in the numbers by then, the plan is wrong and we change the plan.
Can we start smaller than a transformation?
Yes, and you should. The $20,000 Diagnostic is the front door: it tells you where AI actually pays in your business and what a credible first 90 days looks like. Some companies stop there and execute internally. That's a fine outcome; the plan is yours to keep.
Related reading & paths.
AI-Native Transformation
The engagement itself: rebuilding how the product is built and how the org runs.
AI strategy cost
Just the strategy layer: what the roadmap and architecture stage costs on its own.
The five phases of AI adoption
Where companies actually stall on the way to AI-native, and what each phase costs them.
Pricing an AI-native
move for your board?
Tell me the shape of the company. I'll give you the staged numbers and what each stage has to prove before the next one.