Perspective

What an AI project costs in a mid-sized business

You rarely get a number in answer to this question, and there is a real reason for that: the effort hangs on things nobody knows before the first inspection. What it hangs on can be said precisely, though - and with it, what makes a project more or less expensive in your case.

Last updated: July 2026

What drives the price up

The number of systems involved: A process that reads one system and writes back into the same one is a different project from one that touches ERP, mailbox, file store and a portal. Every connection is effort, and it is the most reliable cost driver.
Missing interfaces: If a legacy system has no way out, we build one. That is almost always possible but it costs - and it is the point at which a project can eat up its own benefit.
The number of formats: Four suppliers with four invoice layouts is routine. Forty is a work package of its own.
How expensive an error is: A process with high error costs needs more checks, more test cases and a tighter acceptance. That is right, but it costs.
How clear the rules are: Where the business disagrees about how a case should be handled, the project settles that question too. That is valuable and was rarely budgeted for.

What brings the price down

The strongest effect comes from the scope. A process limited to the recurring core, deliberately leaving the special cases to a person, costs a fraction and often delivers the larger share of the saving. The last fifteen per cent of coverage regularly cost more than the first eighty-five.

The second lever is the order. Starting with a process whose data has to be opened up anyway lowers the cost of every subsequent process in the same business - which is why every further process costs less than the first.

The cheapest route into an AI project is a smaller first process, not a cheaper provider.

When it pays

Do not calculate with headcount saved. That is rarely the effect and it is a poor start with the workforce. Calculate with the time that flows back into the work currently left undone: quotations that go out faster, enquiries that do not go unanswered, analyses that arrive while they can still change a decision.

For scale: a process that ties up one person-day a month costs you a mid four-figure sum a year in working time. If it ties up three, the payback on a single process project sits in the range of one to two years - before any of the softer effects.

Felix Straub

Founder

Frequently asked

Why is the second process cheaper than the first?

Because the most expensive part - access, opening up the data, connecting systems - is done once with the first process and then stands. The second process uses the same foundation.

Can we start with a small project?

That is the recommended route. A system integration or the sorting of a shared mailbox is one of the smaller undertakings, productive in two to four weeks, and it shows an effect in daily work immediately.