Managing costs and pricing – AI is expensive

Formulating a pricing strategy will be a highly personalized experience that will involve a number of factors, from the comparative prices of your competition to the operating costs for managing your AI/ML infrastructure and workflows. In this section, we will briefly cover the various aspects of AI product management that impact costs and how to use this knowledge to inform your pricing strategy so that you’re aware of the main contributors to your AI/ML program costs.

Let’s first start with the cost of AI/ML resources themselves. According to WebFX (https://www.webfx.com/martech/pricing/ai/), most AI consultants charge between $200-$350 an hour and the cost of a custom AI solution is anywhere from $6,000 to $300,000. Using third-party AI software instead can cost anywhere from $0 to $40,000 annually.

It might be tempting to build an AI/ML-native product around consultants, but it’s not the best practice...