Looking at how you work
Interviews with the people who do the work, not just with management. That is where the costly tasks are.
Audit & strategy
AI audit: finding out what AI can really do for you
An AI audit is the examination of your actual processes to establish where artificial intelligence would save you time or money, what it would cost, and what is better left unautomated. It produces a list of costed, prioritised use cases, not a catalogue of ideas.
It is the most frequent request, and the worst served: you know AI should save you something, without knowing where or how much.
A serious audit is recognised by what it rules out. If it comes back with fifteen opportunities that all look promising, it has not done its job: it was supposed to tell you which ones are not worth it, and why.
203 providers in the directory cover this need. You pay nothing, neither to search nor if you hire one of them.
What a provider does on this subject
Putting a figure on each lead
Time saved, implementation cost, running cost, timeline. A lead without figures is not a lead.
Making the call
A clear ranking: what we do now, what we keep for later, what we drop.
Flagging the obstacles
Unusable data, regulation, a locked-in tool, a team already at capacity. An audit that only talks about opportunities is a sales pitch.
Situations that look like yours
- An industrial SME wants to know where to start, with no budget to waste on trials.
- A management team has received four proposals at €60,000 and does not know how to compare them.
- A company head wants to check that a project under way holds up before committing to the next stage.
- A company has to choose between an off-the-shelf tool and custom development.
If your case is not on this list, describe it anyway: we will tell you honestly whether it falls within what our providers know how to do.
What it costs you
€0
to post your project, receive qualified providers and talk with them.
And €0 too if you hire one of them: Claude Partners is paid by the provider you choose, at 20% of the engagement amount excluding VAT. Nothing is added to the quote you receive.
See pricing in detailHow much does an AI audit cost?
An audit is billed by the day, not as a fixed package: the price depends on the number of people to interview and processes to examine, then on the provider’s day rate. For a department or an SME, expect most often between three and ten days of work, interviews and writing included — an overview of an entire company takes more.
The day rate follows seniority. Our market grid, published and dated on the day-rate barometer, gives three bands: €300, €500 and €700 excl. VAT per day. A five-day audit therefore comes to between €1,500 and €3,500 excl. VAT, depending on the profile. A quote far below that generally hides an implementation engagement sold on the back of it; a quote far above it must be justified by the scope, not by the provider’s name.
Ask for an estimate in days, with the deliverable described and the number of interviews planned: it is the only way to compare two proposals. And ask whether the audit is billed even when the conclusion is to do nothing — it is a good sign when the answer is yes.
To give an order of magnitude, a day is billed at the provider’s day rate: our market grid sets €300 to €700 excl. VAT per day depending on seniority, with €500 for an experienced profile. These are market benchmarks, not the rates of the people in the directory: we only display a provider’s price if they have given it to us. The method is explained in the day-rate barometer.
Scope your request before posting it
Four answers are enough to turn an intention into a request that can be qualified — and to get comparable quotes rather than a gap of 1 to 10 between two providers.
What scope: the whole company or one department?
An audit of one specific department, delivered in three weeks, is more useful than a general overview delivered in three months.
What do you expect at the end?
A decision document? A costed plan? An opinion on quotes received? Say so: the deliverables are completely different.
Who will be available for interviews?
Without access to the people who do the work, the audit will not be worth much. Set the time aside.
What budget do you have in mind for what comes next?
It is not a nosy question: a €200,000 plan for a company that can put in €15,000 is a waste of everyone’s time.
Four questions to ask the provider
- Tell me about an audit where you concluded that nothing should be done.
- Can the deliverable be used if I choose another provider for the implementation?
- Do you also sell the implementation? How do you handle that conflict of interest?
- What do you commit to: the figures for the gains, or only the method?
The mistakes that cost a lot
The free audit
It is rarely free: it is paid for by the engagement it recommends. That is not disqualifying, but it should be said.
The report that decides nothing
Fifty pages of background and no ranked recommendation: ask to see a sample deliverable before signing.
The audit without the people on the ground
An audit done only with the executive committee describes the company as it is believed to be, not as it actually works.
Five minutes to describe your need
No account to create. We get back to you within 48 business hours, even to say no.