AI
$185/hr
AI strategy + build
I help businesses figure out where AI can actually save time or money, then build it. That might be a search tool over your own documents, a local model that keeps data in-house, or a workflow that removes a repetitive task. Consulting and build work is $185 an hour with a two-hour minimum, and there are fixed-price packages for common starting points.
What I work on
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG): AI that answers from your own documents and cites them
- Local LLM setup, for data that shouldn’t leave your network
- AI workflow design and automation
- Prompt engineering and testing
- Connecting AI tools to systems you already use, such as WordPress
Ways to start
- AI Readiness Assessment, $495. A 90-minute workshop and written report ranking your top three automation opportunities by effort and impact.
- AI Discovery, $1,200. A one-week engagement: a 2-hour workshop, a workflow audit, feasibility and build-versus-buy advice, and a written roadmap with cost estimates.
- Custom AI Tool, from $8,500. A production-ready tool that solves one real operational problem.
- AI System Integration, from $20,000. AI across several workflows, with knowledge management, automation and monitoring. Usually 8 to 14 weeks.
How I approach it
AI output still has to be checked, tested and secured, and I treat it that way. I start from a specific problem, recommend buying an existing tool when that’s the better answer, and document what I build so your team can run it.
Related work
- AI-Assisted Knowledge Systems: retrieval-augmented AI platforms
- Culture Coach: AI-assisted hospitality training
- SecuriGotchi: an AI cybersecurity monitoring companion
- What Retrieval-Augmented AI Actually Means (blog post)
Built this way
- AI-Assisted Knowledge Systems: private RAG assistants on local LLMs that cut finding a past fix to under a minute
- RAG AI Specialist: an audit companion for NIST 800-171
- Solar Sentinel: a tactical AI field network
What it costs
AI consulting and development is $185 an hour with a 2-hour minimum. Prepaying for 20 or more hours takes 10% off, and those hours stay valid for 90 days. The fixed-price ways to start are listed above.
How I compare
| Jeremy Anderson | Boston agency | Offshore freelancer | General freelancer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI consulting | $185/hr or fixed project | $250–$450/hr | $50–$120/hr | $100–$200/hr |
| Local Massachusetts presence | Yes | Yes | Remote only | Varies |
| WordPress, AI and security from one person | Yes | Separate specialists | Rarely | Rarely |
| 25+ years of experience | Yes | Depends on the team | Varies widely | Varies |
| Direct communication, no account manager | Yes | Account manager layer | Yes | Yes |
| Massachusetts privacy (MDPA) know-how | Yes | Some | No | No |
Working together
- A free 30-minute call about what you need. Book one here.
- A written estimate of the hours and what’s included, agreed before work starts.
- The work, with progress you can see and invoices every two weeks.
- Handoff: what was done, how it works and what to watch for next.
Getting found in AI search
AI is also changing how customers find businesses. If you want your site to appear in Google’s AI Overviews and in assistants like ChatGPT, see SEO and AI search optimization, which covers answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO).
Packages and prices
- AI Discovery: $1,200 · flat fee · 1-week engagement
- AI Readiness Assessment: $495
- Custom AI Tool: $8,500 · starting price · scoped per project
- AI System Integration: $20,000+ · scoped + quoted · 8–14 weeks
AI Discovery
$1,200 · flat fee · 1-week engagement
AI Discovery is a one-week engagement that finds where AI can realistically help your business, what it would cost to build, and what to do first. It’s a flat $1,200. You get a 2-hour workshop, a feasibility check of your top 3 opportunities, a build-or-buy recommendation for each, and a written roadmap with cost estimates. I work in person around Worcester County, Boston and New England, and remotely for anyone else.
Who it’s for
- Businesses ready to invest in AI that want a plan before they spend on a build
- Teams comparing off-the-shelf AI products with something custom
- Owners who need cost estimates they can take to a budget meeting
What’s included
- A 2-hour discovery workshop, held remotely
- A workflow audit that identifies your top 3 AI opportunities
- A feasibility assessment for each opportunity: what’s possible, what data it needs and what could go wrong
- A build-or-buy recommendation: sometimes an existing tool does the job, and I’ll tell you when
- A detailed written roadmap with cost estimates
- A 30-minute follow-up call for questions
How the week runs
- We hold the workshop and map how your work gets done.
- I assess each opportunity and research the options.
- You receive the written roadmap, then we go through it on the follow-up call.
What comes next
From the roadmap, you can build one tool with a Custom AI Tool, or connect several systems with AI System Integration. For a lighter first look, there’s the AI Readiness Assessment ($495).
Examples of AI systems I’ve built: private knowledge assistants on local LLMs and the RAG AI Specialist.
Book a free call about AI Discovery
AI Readiness Assessment
$495
An AI readiness assessment shows where AI could genuinely save your business time, before you spend money building anything. It’s $495: a 90-minute structured workshop followed by a written report naming your top 3 AI automation opportunities, ranked by effort and impact. I work in person around Worcester County, Boston and New England, and remotely for anyone else.
Who it’s for
- Businesses that keep hearing about AI and want a straight answer about what it would do for them
- Teams with repetitive work, such as answering the same questions, sorting documents or copying data between systems
- Owners who want a realistic first step before committing to a build
How it works
- Workshop (90 minutes): we walk through how your work actually gets done and where time goes.
- Report: I write up your top 3 opportunities, each ranked by effort and impact, with a plain-language explanation of what AI would and wouldn’t do.
What you get
- A written report with your top 3 AI automation opportunities
- Each one ranked by effort and impact, so you know where to start
- Honest notes on what isn’t worth automating yet
Readiness Assessment or AI Discovery?
This assessment is the lighter first step. AI Discovery ($1,200) goes further: a 2-hour workshop, a feasibility assessment and build-or-buy recommendation for each opportunity, a roadmap with cost estimates, and a follow-up call. When you’re ready to build, see Custom AI Tool.
Further reading: Building Practical AI Tools for Real Businesses and What Retrieval-Augmented AI Actually Means.
Book a free call about AI Readiness Assessment
Custom AI Tool
$8,500 · starting price · scoped per project
A Custom AI Tool is a focused, production-ready application that solves one real operational problem: a document assistant for your staff, a chat interface over your policies, a log analyzer that flags what needs attention. Projects start at $8,500 and are scoped individually.
What’s included
- A full scope definition and architecture document
- Choosing and setting up a local or cloud language model
- A vector database and RAG pipeline, if the tool needs to answer from your documents
- A custom web interface or an API integration
- Prompt engineering and testing
- Integration with your existing systems, such as WordPress
- Documentation and a staff training session
- 60 days of post-launch support
Good first projects
- Answering staff questions from handbooks, menus or procedures
- Searching and summarizing a large document archive
- Reviewing logs or reports and flagging what needs a human
- Guided training that adapts to each learner
Not sure which problem to start with? AI Discovery ($1,200) or the AI Readiness Assessment ($495) will rank your options first.
How it works
- Free 30-minute call. We talk through what you need and whether I’m the right fit.
- Written proposal. You get the scope, price and timeline in writing within 3 business days.
- Start. Work usually starts within 1 to 2 weeks of signing. Project work takes a 50% deposit, with the rest due on delivery.
- Delivery and support. You get the finished work, documentation of what changed, and the support period listed for your package.
What I’ve built
Examples of tools in this range: private knowledge assistants that answer from runbooks and research papers on local LLMs, cutting the search for a past fix from 15 to 20 minutes to under a minute, and the RAG AI Specialist for NIST 800-171 audit work. Background reading: Building Practical AI Tools for Real Businesses.
Book a free call about Custom AI Tool
AI System Integration
$20,000+ · scoped + quoted · 8–14 weeks
AI System Integration is end-to-end AI infrastructure for organizations ready to use AI across several workflows: knowledge management, automation pipelines and monitoring systems, designed to work together. Projects start at $20,000, are scoped and quoted up front, and take 8 to 14 weeks. I work in person around Worcester County, Boston and New England, and remotely for anyone else.
Who it’s for
- Organizations with several teams that could each use AI, and no plan for how the tools fit together
- Businesses with confidential data that can’t go to a public AI service
- Teams that already tried a few AI tools and now need them connected, documented and supported
What’s included
- Multi-tool AI architecture design
- A knowledge base and RAG system at scale, so AI answers from your own documents and cites them
- Automation workflow integration with n8n or custom code
- AI-assisted monitoring and alerting
- A data privacy review, with options to deploy local LLMs so data stays on your hardware
- Team training and change management support
- Infrastructure documentation
- 90 days of support with iteration sprints after launch
How a project runs
- Scoping: we define the workflows, data and success criteria, and I quote a fixed scope.
- Architecture: I design how the models, knowledge base, automations and monitoring connect.
- Build and integrate, in stages you can test as they land.
- Train and hand over: your team learns the system, and the documentation covers how it works.
- Support: 90 days of fixes and iteration sprints based on real use.
Experience behind it
I’ve built private RAG assistants on local LLMs, the RAG AI Specialist for NIST 800-171 audits, and monitoring that correlates security events across 40 sites. Background reading: What Retrieval-Augmented AI Actually Means.
Not sure where to start? AI Discovery produces the roadmap and cost estimates first.
Book a free call about AI System Integration
Common questions
Will our data be sent to an AI company?
Only if you choose that. Many tools can run on a local model instead of a cloud service, and that trade-off is part of the plan we agree on.
What if the project turns out to be more complex than scoped?
Fixed-fee projects start with a scope document signed before work begins, so any new requirements are discussed and agreed before they’re added.
Do you meet in person?
Yes. For clients in Greater Boston and the Worcester area, discovery sessions and kickoff meetings can be in person, and there is no travel surcharge within 50 miles of Shrewsbury. Ongoing work is usually remote.
How much does AI consulting cost?
$185 an hour, with a 2-hour minimum.
How is hourly work billed?
Invoices go out every two weeks, or at the end for engagements under 10 hours. Prepaying for 20 or more hours takes 10% off the rate, and those hours stay valid for 90 days.
Is there a fixed-price option?
Yes: the AI Readiness Assessment ($495), AI Discovery ($1,200) and Custom AI Tool (from $8,500).
Why not hire an AI agency?
Agencies typically charge $250 to $450 an hour and often separate strategy from the people who build. I do both, so the advice comes from someone who has to make it work.
Do we need to buy expensive AI software?
Often not. Part of the work is a build-or-buy decision, and sometimes an existing tool or a small local model is the right answer.
How much does AI Discovery cost?
$1,200, flat, for the one-week engagement.
What if the answer is to buy instead of build?
Then that’s the recommendation. The build-or-buy step exists so you don’t pay for custom work an existing product already does.
Is our data safe during discovery?
Discovery is about how your work flows, so it rarely needs sensitive data. If a later build does, I can design it to run on local models so the data stays with you.
How much does an AI readiness assessment cost?
$495 for the 90-minute workshop and the written report.
Do I need technical staff?
No. The workshop is about how your business works, not about technology.
What if AI isn’t a good fit for us?
Then the report says so. Knowing that before you spend money on a build is worth having.
Why does it start at $8,500?
That covers the full build: scoping, model setup, the interface, testing, training and 60 days of support. Larger tools are quoted after the scope is defined.
Can it run without sending data to the cloud?
Yes, when that matters. Model selection is local or cloud, and we choose together based on your data and budget.
Do I need AI Discovery first?
No, but it helps if you’re not sure which tool to build. AI Discovery produces a roadmap with cost estimates in a week.
Who maintains the tool after launch?
You can run it yourself with the documentation, or have me maintain it. AI tool maintenance is part of the Partner retainer.
How much does AI system integration cost?
From $20,000. Every project is scoped and quoted before work starts.
How long does it take?
8 to 14 weeks, depending on scope.
Can it run without sending our data to OpenAI or other providers?
Yes. Local LLM deployment is one of the options covered in the data privacy review.
What happens after launch?
90 days of support and iteration sprints are included. After that, a Partner or Embedded Dev retainer can keep it maintained.