The Developer's Guide to AI Consulting: Pricing, Proposals, and Delivery

I've been doing AI consulting for the past year, charging $200-500/hour depending on the engagement. Most developers drastically undercharge because they don't know how to frame AI expertise as a business outcome. Here's my complete framework — with actual numbers, proposal structures, and delivery systems. Why Developers Should Be AI Consultants Right Now The market dynamics are exceptional: Supply/demand gap : Thousands of businesses want AI integration, but few developers can actually deliver it High perceived value : "AI" attached to anything commands premium pricing Low marginal cost : Your tools (Claude API, open-source models) cost pennies per use; clients pay for the architecture Recurring revenue : Every AI system needs monitoring, tuning, and expansion Pricing Models: The Math That Works Model 1: Hourly Consulting ($200-500/hr) Best for: discovery calls, architecture reviews, audits. # Pricing calculator for hourly consulting from dataclasses import dataclass @dataclass class