Cost
In short. An AI adoption plan costs anywhere from $150 an hour for an independent consultant to more than $1,000 an hour at a large strategy consultancy, per AIDOLS Research's March 2026 analysis of 212 consulting proposals. Stratos Edge prices FlightPlan™, its six-week, fixed-fee AI adoption plan, as a fixed fee banded by company size, quoted after a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman. The fee is set before the engagement starts and never renegotiated on scope afterward.
An AI adoption plan costs between $10,000 for a fixed-fee readiness assessment and several million dollars for a multi-year enterprise transformation, depending on who delivers it and how much of the work they take on. Large strategy consultancies bill $500 to more than $1,000 an hour, per AIDOLS Research's March 2026 analysis of 212 consulting proposals; boutique AI consultancies bill $150 to $300 an hour, per the same analysis.
Stratos Edge prices FlightPlan™, its six-week, fixed-fee AI adoption plan, as a fixed fee banded by company size; the figure comes from a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman. The fee is set before the engagement starts and covers every deliverable on the engagement.
Five kinds of providers sell an AI adoption plan, and each prices it differently: a large strategy consultancy, a boutique AI consultancy, a fractional chief AI officer, an in-house hire, and FlightPlan™ by Stratos Edge.
| Provider type | Typical fee | Typical length | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large strategy consultancy | $500 to over $1,000 an hour, per AIDOLS Research, March 2026 | Three to six months | A strategy document built and delivered by a project team of eight to fifteen people |
| Boutique AI consultancy | $150 to $300 an hour, or $10,000 to $25,000 fixed for a readiness assessment, per AliceLabs' 2026 AI consulting pricing guide | Two to eight weeks for an assessment; three to nine months for full implementation | A scoped assessment or implementation project, priced by complexity |
| Fractional chief AI officer | $5,000 to $30,000 a month, per iternal.ai's 2026 fractional CAIO guide | Six to twelve months or longer, ongoing | Part-time executive leadership, two days a month to three days a week |
| In-house hire (chief AI officer) | $325,000 to $450,000 base salary at a $100 million to $500 million revenue company, per JRG Partners' 2026 chief AI officer salary guide | Ongoing, a permanent role | A full-time executive who builds and runs the function from inside the company |
| FlightPlan™ by Stratos Edge | Fixed fee, quoted after a 30-minute conversation | Six weeks, fixed | A return target on every AI move, the order to run them, and who delivers each one |
Company size moves the FlightPlan™ fee inside its band, and the figure is quoted after a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman rather than published as a table lookup.
Across every provider type, the same three factors move the fee: how many people the engagement touches, how much of the delivery work the provider takes on beyond the plan itself, and how quickly the client needs the plan finished.
A quote for an AI adoption plan usually leaves out the cost of the tools and partners the plan recommends, the internal hours a company's own team spends on discovery and change management, and any work needed to act on the plan once it is delivered.
FlightPlan™'s fixed fee covers all six weeks and every deliverable on the engagement; nothing about scope is negotiated afterward, and the return target on each move already accounts for what it will take to deliver.
Five questions separate a plan from a document that only describes the company's situation.
Stratos Edge prices FlightPlan™ as a fixed fee, banded by company size and set before the work starts; the figure comes from a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman, and nothing about scope is negotiated afterward.
Stratos Edge does not take every engagement, and when it agrees there is value in one, it stands behind the result: if FlightPlan™ does not put a range on each opportunity, put them in order, name who delivers each one, and show how the pieces fit together, the client does not pay. For the following twelve months after the engagement, the client can refresh the plan and re-sequence the work at no additional fee.
An AI adoption plan costs between $150 an hour for an independent consultant and more than $1,000 an hour at a large strategy consultancy, per AIDOLS Research's March 2026 analysis of 212 consulting proposals. Stratos Edge prices FlightPlan™, its six-week, fixed-fee AI adoption plan, as a fixed fee banded by company size, with the figure quoted after a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman.
A large strategy consultancy charges $500 to over $1,000 an hour for AI strategy work, per AIDOLS Research's March 2026 analysis of 212 consulting proposals, typically over a three-to-six-month engagement staffed by a project team of eight to fifteen people. FlightPlan™ by Stratos Edge is priced instead as a fixed fee for six weeks, quoted after a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman.
A boutique AI consultancy charges $150 to $300 an hour, or $10,000 to $25,000 as a fixed fee for a readiness assessment, per AliceLabs' 2026 AI consulting pricing guide. A full implementation project at a boutique consultancy can run $150,000 to $500,000 over three to nine months, according to the same guide.
A fractional chief AI officer costs $5,000 to $30,000 a month, depending on time committed, per iternal.ai's 2026 fractional CAIO guide: roughly $4,000 to $8,000 for two days a month of advisory work, rising to $15,000 to $30,000 for two to three days a week. The role is retained on an ongoing basis, not for a fixed engagement length.
A full-time chief AI officer at a $100 million to $500 million revenue company earns a base salary of $325,000 to $450,000, with total direct compensation of $575,000 to $1.1 million once bonus and equity are included, per JRG Partners' 2026 chief AI officer salary guide. That cost is ongoing, not a one-time project fee.
FlightPlan™ is a fixed fee, set before the engagement starts and banded by company size; the figure comes from a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman. Stratos Edge fixes the fee once, so a client knows the full cost before agreeing to start.
An AI adoption plan quote usually leaves out the tools and partners the plan recommends, the internal hours a company's own team spends on discovery, and the cost of acting on the plan once delivered. FlightPlan™'s fixed fee covers all six weeks and every deliverable on the engagement, with nothing renegotiated afterward.
FlightPlan™, a fixed fee quoted after a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman, costs a fraction of a large strategy consultancy's $500-to-$1,000-an-hour rate over a three-to-six-month engagement, per AIDOLS Research's March 2026 analysis. Stratos Edge compares its fee with the cost of one bad hire or a few employees turning over, not with the price of a single tool.
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