What does an AI consultant do for a small business?
An AI consultant finds the busywork and the unused data in a business, then builds and runs the tools that handle them, with a person making every call that matters.
Inside an engagement, the work draws on these building blocks, scoped to your business:
- An assistant on the website that answers customer questions around the clock and captures every lead, trained on the business before it goes live.
- Lead routing and follow-up, so nothing sits in a voicemail or an inbox overnight.
- Dashboards that put the numbers you already have in one place, in plain English: what came in, what closed, and what slipped.
- Forecasts and flags that point at what needs attention, like a slow month coming, a customer going quiet, or a job that never got invoiced.
- Connected systems, so your scheduler, your invoices, and your spreadsheets work from the same information. What connects depends on what each tool allows, and that gets scoped with you.
- A rebuilt website, when yours is holding the business back.
AI is only as good as the data behind it, so I treat AI and data as one job, not two. Each building block is explained on the AI and data page.
What does an AI consultant cost in Columbus?
I charge a flat $3,500 a month for about half a day a week, or $7,000 a month for about a day a week.
Those two sizes are the whole price list. There are no packages and no hourly billing, and there is no long-term contract: either side can end it with 30 days' notice.
Every quarter you get a written plan of what lands next, so you always know what the monthly is paying for. I take two clients at a time, and the first step, a 45-minute Discovery Call, is free. The full detail is on the pricing page, and how fractional AI works covers which of the two sizes fits.
When you compare consultants, ask how each price is built (by the hour, by the project, or by the month) before you compare the numbers.
How to choose an AI consultant: six questions to ask
Ask any AI consultant these six questions before you sign, and listen for straight answers.
-
What will the AI not do?
It won't make the final call: a person does. It won't connect to one of your tools until I have checked what that tool allows. If a consultant can't name limits like these, ask why. If I can't do something, I say so up front.
-
Who makes the final call?
AI should propose and a person should decide. In everything I build, you stay in the driver's seat.
-
Who owns what gets built?
With me, you do. Your data and your content stay yours, in writing.
-
How is it billed?
Mine is a flat monthly, never hourly. A flat monthly is easier to plan around than an hourly meter.
-
How do I get out if it isn't working?
With me, there is no long-term contract. Either side can end it with 30 days' notice.
-
Do they run these systems themselves?
Everything I build runs on the same cloud setup that runs my own business. In the 14 days before October 2, 2026, the 36 scheduled AI and automation agents I run ran 5,671 times, and 99.24% of those runs succeeded. What that number proves, and what it doesn't.
Where I work in Central Ohio
I am based in Plain City and serve businesses in Columbus and these Central Ohio communities:
- Columbus
- Dublin
- Worthington
- Westerville
- Powell
- Hilliard
- Upper Arlington
- New Albany
- Gahanna
- Grove City
- Delaware
- Plain City
I also take on work in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, and Akron, and across the country.
Who you would be working with
You would work with me directly: 20 years at Verizon, from the front lines to revenue assurance, systems analysis, and data engineering, plus a Professional Certificate in AI and Machine Learning from the University of Michigan.
I started at Verizon in 2002 on the front lines and moved through business credit review, revenue assurance, systems analysis, and data engineering. I was always using data to solve a real operational problem. More on my about page.