What an AI Business Consultant Actually Does (And When You Need One)
The term "AI business consultant" gets thrown around a lot these days. Everyone from ChatGPT prompt engineers to enterprise software salespeople has started using it. But there's a meaningful distinction between someone who can demo AI tools and someone who can actually integrate them into your business operations in ways that stick.
The Real Work of AI Business Consulting
Most businesses don’t need help finding AI tools. They need help figuring out which ones solve actual problems they have, and then making those tools work with the systems they already use.
An effective AI business consultant spends most of their time on integration, not ideation. That means connecting APIs, building workflows between platforms, and automating the handoffs that currently require someone to copy-paste data between systems. The AI component might be a small piece of a larger automation puzzle.
For example, a recent project involved connecting a genomic data processing service to a CRM. The “AI” part was the analysis engine the client already had. The consulting work was building the infrastructure to process 2GB files efficiently, trigger the right workflows, and get results into the hands of the people who needed them without anyone babysitting the process.
When Does Hiring an AI Business Consultant Make Sense?
You probably need this kind of help if:
You have data siloed across multiple platforms. Your customer information lives in your CRM, your support tickets are in a separate system, and your analytics are somewhere else entirely. An AI consultant can build the bridges between these systems so you can actually use AI tools on your complete dataset.
You’re drowning in manual data entry. If someone on your team spends hours moving information from one system to another, that’s integration work waiting to happen. This is often where AI tools can have the biggest immediate impact not on the core work, but on the busywork surrounding it.
You’ve tried AI tools but they didn’t stick. Most AI tool adoption fails not because the tools don’t work, but because they weren’t connected to existing workflows. People default to their old habits because the new way requires extra steps. Good integration eliminates those extra steps.
You need custom solutions, not off-the-shelf products. Enterprise AI products are built for the average case. If your business has specific requirements unusual data formats, custom workflows, compliance needs you need someone who can build to your specifications.
What to Look For (And What to Avoid)
The AI consulting space has a credibility problem. Here’s how to filter:
Look for technical depth. Can they actually build what they’re recommending, or are they going to hand it off to someone else? Ask about specific integrations they’ve built, what APIs they’ve worked with, and what happened when things broke.
Ask about maintenance. Building an integration is one thing. Keeping it running when APIs change, when your business requirements shift, when edge cases emerge that’s the harder problem. What does ongoing support look like?
Be skeptical of transformation promises. Good consultants solve specific problems. They don’t promise to “revolutionize” your business with AI. They identify bottlenecks, build solutions, and measure results.
Avoid anyone who leads with tools instead of problems. If the first thing out of their mouth is a specific AI product they want to implement, they’re selling, not consulting. The tools should follow from your problems, not the other way around.
The Integration-First Approach
The most valuable work in AI business consulting right now isn’t about AI at all it’s about plumbing. Connecting systems, automating workflows, and building the infrastructure that lets AI tools actually access the data they need.
Consider a typical customer support scenario. You might have conversations happening in Intercom, customer records in HubSpot, and support tickets in a separate system. Before any AI tool can help you analyze customer sentiment or predict churn, someone needs to connect all that data. That’s the work.
Once the pipes are in place, adding AI capabilities becomes straightforward. Want to auto-categorize support tickets? That’s an API call. Want to generate response suggestions? Another API call. The hard part was already done.
What This Costs
AI business consulting rates vary widely, but expect to pay for expertise that spans multiple domains: API development, workflow automation, the specific platforms you use, and enough understanding of AI capabilities to know what’s possible.
Project-based pricing often makes more sense than hourly rates for integration work. You’re paying for a working system, not time spent. Scope the outcome clearly, and make sure maintenance and support are addressed separately.
Getting Started
If you’re exploring whether an AI business consultant could help your operations, start by mapping the manual handoffs in your current workflows. Where does data get copied from one system to another? Where do things fall through the cracks? Where are people doing work that feels like it should be automated?
Those pain points are your starting list. A good consultant will help you prioritize them, estimate the effort involved, and build solutions that actually get used.
Dylan Solomon Consulting specializes in API integrations and workflow automation for businesses looking to connect their systems and leverage AI tools effectively. Get in touch to discuss your specific requirements.