The Australian AI consulting market has roughly tripled in size since 2024. That growth has attracted genuine specialists, rebadged management consultants, and outright opportunists. For Australian businesses seeking AI guidance, navigating this landscape without getting burned requires knowing what to look for.

The Market Segments

The AI consulting market in Australia breaks into roughly five segments.

Big Four and major consulting firms. Deloitte, PwC, EY, and McKinsey all have Australian AI practices. Their strengths are scale, cross-industry experience, and the ability to embed large teams. Their weaknesses are cost (day rates often exceed $3,000), a tendency toward generic frameworks rather than specific solutions, and the reality that senior partners selling the work aren’t always the people doing it.

Specialist AI consultancies. These are firms of 10-50 people focused exclusively on AI. They typically have deeper technical expertise than generalist firms and more practical deployment experience. Companies like Team400 fall into this category. Their advantage is focus and depth. Their limitation is capacity, as they can only serve a limited number of clients simultaneously.

University-affiliated research groups. CSIRO’s Data61, university research centres, and Cooperative Research Centres offer consulting-like services, particularly for complex technical challenges. The upside is advanced technical capability. The downside is academic timelines and commercial mindsets that can clash with business urgency.

Independent consultants. Former data scientists, ML engineers, and AI leaders who’ve gone solo. Quality varies enormously. The best independents bring specific industry expertise and practical experience that larger firms can’t match. The worst are career consultants who read about AI and added it to their LinkedIn profile.

Technology vendors posing as consultants. Software companies that offer “AI consulting” as a sales channel for their products. Their “strategic advice” invariably concludes that you need their specific product. Recognise this for what it is: sales, not consulting.

How to Evaluate AI Consultants

Check the team, not the brand. A Big Four firm’s AI practice might be excellent or mediocre depending on which specific people work on your engagement. A small specialist firm might have outstanding technical capability. Ask to meet the actual team that will work on your project.

Verify technical depth. Ask potential consultants to explain a recent project in technical detail. Not the business outcomes slide. The technical approach: what models they used, why they chose them, what challenges they encountered, how they handled them. Genuine AI practitioners can discuss this fluently. Rebadged generalists can’t.

Ask for Australian references. Not global case studies. Australian clients in similar industries who can speak to the consultant’s performance on Australian projects with Australian constraints.

Assess their listening-to-selling ratio. In initial conversations, the consultant should spend more time understanding your business than pitching their services. A consultant who jumps to solution recommendations before understanding your situation is selling a product, not providing advice.

Test for honest assessment. Ask the potential consultant what AI projects they’d recommend you don’t pursue. An honest advisor will identify areas where AI isn’t the right solution. A consultant who sees AI opportunity everywhere is optimising for their revenue, not your outcomes.

Common Mistakes

Hiring too senior. For a first AI engagement, you don’t need a Big Four partner’s strategic wisdom. You need practitioners who can assess your data, identify opportunities, and build something that works. Save the strategic engagement for later when you have specific strategic questions.

Hiring too junior. Conversely, some firms staff AI projects with recent graduates who’ve completed a data science bootcamp. Theoretical knowledge without practical experience leads to technically sound recommendations that don’t work in practice.

Scope creep. AI consulting engagements are notorious for expanding scope. “Let’s also look at…” is the most expensive phrase in consulting. Define scope tightly at the outset and resist expansion until the original scope is delivered.

Ignoring change management. The best AI recommendation is worthless if your organisation can’t implement it. Consulting that produces a beautiful report and a shelf it sits on forever is wasted money. Ensure the consulting engagement includes practical implementation guidance, not just strategic recommendations.

What Good Looks Like

The best AI consulting engagements I’ve observed in Australia share common characteristics.

They start with data assessment and business process analysis, not technology selection. They produce specific, actionable recommendations with clear implementation steps. They include honest assessment of what won’t work and what’s not worth pursuing. They transfer knowledge to the client team so that dependence on the consultant decreases over time. They measure outcomes, not just deliverables.

And they’re realistic about timelines and costs. Any AI consultant who promises transformational results in weeks is either lying or delusional. Real AI implementation takes months, and the results improve over years of refinement.

The Price Question

Expect to pay between $200 and $350 per hour for experienced specialist AI consultants in Australia. Big Four firms charge $250 to $500+. Independent consultants range from $150 to $400 depending on experience and specialism.

For a typical first engagement, covering assessment, strategy, and pilot recommendations, budget $40,000 to $80,000 over six to eight weeks. For a full AI implementation with consulting support, budget $100,000 to $300,000 over three to six months.

These aren’t small numbers. But compared to the cost of a failed AI project, which easily exceeds these amounts, good consulting is an investment in getting it right the first time.

Choose carefully. Ask hard questions. Check references. And remember that the best consultant is the one who makes themselves unnecessary by building your internal capability.