What does a retained AI advisor cost in Australia?

C-Insight Ongoing AI Advisory is $6,000 per month excluding GST, billed monthly in advance, for up to half a consultant day a week. Three months minimum, then month to month with thirty days written notice from either side.

What is included in an AI advisory retainer?

A monthly advisory session of up to two hours, attendance at up to one governance or steering forum a month, a half-page written note after each session recording decisions taken and advice given, and availability for questions in the remaining time. Unused time lapses monthly with no rollover.

Will you help us select an AI vendor?

No. C-Insight may test a shortlist you have assembled against a defined capability requirement, but does not produce the shortlist, does not narrow it and does not run the process. Vendor selection is a separate and later decision made by you.

AI Adoption Suite

Ongoing AI Advisory

Q: Do you have to buy a diagnostic first?

No. Ongoing AI Advisory can follow any of the three C-Insight diagnostics or stand entirely on its own. Where there is no preceding engagement, month one establishes the basis in writing: what we are advising on, what is in flight, and what decisions are coming. It is never sold while a diagnostic is running.

Is our AI work still right, and is it working? An independent view at the decision points, rather than another study.

Investment$6,000 per month

CapacityUp to half a day a week

TermThree months, then monthly

Book a conversation Terms & inclusions ↓

The situation

You are already acting. What you need is someone in the room with no stake in the outcome.

The work is underway, with your own people or a delivery partner. Decisions are being made monthly rather than quarterly. The people advising you on those decisions are, in most cases, the people delivering the work, and that is not the same as an independent view.

What you want at that point is not another diagnostic. It is someone who will review progress, test whether what was expected is actually happening, and say so plainly at the decision points.

This is deliberately not a fourth tier. The three diagnostics each answer a different question once. This sits on a different axis: ongoing rather than one-off, and available after any of the three or on its own.

What it includes

Up to half a consultant day a week, in an advisory or advisory board capacity.

A monthly advisory session of up to two hours, reviewing progress against what was expected.
Attendance at up to one governance or steering forum a month.
A half-page written note after each session, recording decisions taken and advice given. The record matters as much as the advice.
Availability for questions in the remaining time, between the scheduled sessions.

Where there is no preceding engagement, month one establishes the basis in writing: what we are advising on, what is in flight, and what decisions are coming.

Limits

What it excludes, and why the list is this long.

The advisory service is the only product that runs while a client is actively purchasing, so its boundaries are the tightest in the suite.

Program management or any delivery role.
Building anything, or writing specifications.
Running a vendor process, or producing a vendor shortlist. We may test a shortlist you have assembled against a defined capability requirement. We do not produce it, narrow it or run it.
Any decision-making role. We advise, you decide.

It is never sold while a diagnostic is running. It is offered at close-out or later. This is an independence rule, not a sequencing preference.

Terms and investment

$6,000 per month, three months minimum.

All figures in Australian dollars, excluding GST.

Element	Detail
Price	$6,000 per month excluding GST, billed monthly in advance
Capacity	Up to half a consultant day a week, being roughly 2.17 days a month
Term	Three months minimum, then month to month. Thirty days written notice from either side
Fee review	Fees held for the minimum term and reviewed at each renewal
Entry	After any of the three diagnostics, or standalone
Unused time	Lapses monthly. No rollover, stated at the outset
Add-on	Benefits review against an existing business case, $4,500. Available at any point and not included in the retainer

C-Insight holds a small number of concurrent advisory retainers by design. A retainer is a standing commitment that cannot be scheduled around fixed client-facing delivery dates, so places are limited and allocated deliberately rather than opportunistically. If you are considering one, start the conversation early.

Choosing

Is this the right engagement for you?

Take it when you already know what has to be done and intend to do it yourselves, and what is missing is an independent read at the points where money and direction are committed.

Take something else if

Your leadership group cannot yet have the same conversation about AI. That is the AI Bootcamp, from $5,500.
The open question is whether the organisation could deliver anything at all. That is the AI Readiness Assessment, $22,000 to $33,000.
You need an evidenced value figure for a board or budget decision with a date on it. That is the AI Opportunity Diagnostic, $42,000.

Do not buy this if

What you actually need is capacity to deliver. This is advice, not resource, and half a day a week will not close a delivery gap.
You want us to run the vendor process. We do not, under any arrangement.

Elsewhere in the suite

The three diagnostics.

What is AI, and where does it apply

AI Bootcamp & Use Case Workshop

What is AI really, and where might it apply to us?

$5,500 – $18,500

Could we absorb AI

AI Readiness Assessment

Can this organisation actually absorb AI?

$22,000 – $33,000

Where is the value

AI Opportunity Diagnostic

Where is the AI value, and what is it worth?

$42,000

All four

The full AI Adoption Suite

All four engagements side by side, with every price on one page.

Compare all four →

To start

Book a thirty minute conversation.

Tell us what is in flight and what decisions are coming. We will give an honest read on whether a retainer is warranted.

Book a conversation Email C-Insight

Independence and disclosure. C-Insight is independent of all technology vendors and platforms. No deliverable in this engagement names, recommends or scores a product, platform or supplier. C-Insight holds one commercial referral arrangement with a technology provider, which has no involvement in the design or delivery of this engagement and derives no benefit from it. C-Insight holds no other vendor or reseller relationships. The arrangement is disclosed in full and by name in the engagement letter, and details are available on request at any time before signature.