Which kind of consulting agreement do you need?

A distributor wants help with invoices that get stuck. Finance knows approvals are late, but has not mapped the exceptions or decided who may update the accounting system. That is an example worth taking to a supplier before asking for a fixed production price. First decide what you need to learn: whether the process suits AI, what to build, who will run it or which people your existing team lacks.

Put the choice on a short sheet: what you know, what you still need to decide, what you expect to receive, who accepts it and when to fund the next step. The first purchase might map invoice exceptions and define a buildable project. Ask for reviewed examples, the access each system needs and a reasoned recommendation to build, narrow the work or stop. Buying that advice need not mean choosing the eventual builder.

BlueLabel describes discovery leading to a validated plan and build specification. SOLTECH lists a readiness assessment with an AI maturity score, prioritized backlog and outline roadmap.^1,2,3

Those descriptions tell you what to ask for. They do not tell you either supplier will charge a fixed fee. Get the terms for the exact work you want delivered.^1,2,3

Here, a defined project means buying agreed work with clear conditions for accepting it. For the invoice example, prepare ordinary invoices, disputed amounts, missing records and cases where the approver is unclear. Say what the system may change. Include data preparation, access approvals and your own team's reviews in the discussion. Otherwise, suppliers may quote for different versions of the same project without anyone noticing.

The brief should let a reviewer decide whether the promised work has been delivered. The distributor might ask for a draft recommendation sent to an authorized reviewer, with uncertain cases left for a person. Agree how to handle failed cases and what happens when a new type of exception appears. A fixed fee covers the terms you negotiate; it does not guarantee the business result you hope for.

Mercury publishes separate price indications for discovery and production. DOOR3 offers technical discovery and a service for moving prototypes toward production use.^4,5,6,7

If the service will keep changing, ask what the recurring payment buys. Separate availability, repairs and improvements. Find out what happens in a quiet month, when urgent repairs use the planned time, or when requests exceed the allocation. Calling the agreement a retainer settles none of this. Write down the supplier's continuing duties and name the person on your side who chooses between competing requests.

Dualboot describes part-time AI leadership with a typical weekly allocation and a framework for who owns the work. It also lists staff augmentation. SOLTECH lists IT staffing alongside consulting and software development.^8,9,10,11

Extra staff can help when you have someone to assign work, review it and fit it into the rest of the system. Part-time leadership addresses a different gap: deciding what to do and directing it. For the distributor, more engineers still need someone to settle the accounting rules. An adviser still needs a separate arrangement for the build. Ask which role the supplier will fill and what authority that person will have.^10,9,8,11

Nexus tells us it charges per role automated, without billing consultant hours or days. Its public material describes building with the customer and continuing to improve the result.^12,13,14

That offer belongs on the distributor's shortlist if the purchase is a running invoice-exception role with support. Describe the inputs, permitted actions, expected workload and human review. Ask what would increase the bill and which duties remain with finance or IT. Pricing by role gives you another option to compare, but you still need an itemized proposal that says where the role starts and ends.^12,13,14

Finish the sheet with your preferred route, a credible alternative and the answer that could change your mind. Choose discovery while the work is unclear; a defined project when you can accept its limits; recurring service when duties are agreed; or staffing when you can direct the people. Keep the role-based offer in consideration when its written scope includes the support you need. Do not let an attractive label leave someone else's job unassigned.