Hiring · X vs Y
AI Integrator vs AI Consultant: Who to Hire for What
An AI consultant tells you what to do: strategy, a roadmap, a vendor shortlist. An AI integrator does it: builds the feature or workflow and wires it into the systems you already run, so it works on your real data. Hire a consultant when you do not know what to build. Hire an integrator when you do, and it has to work.
01Side by side
| AI consultant | AI integrator | |
|---|---|---|
| Output | Report, strategy, roadmap | Working feature or workflow |
| Works in | Workshops and documents | Your CRM, POS, messengers, databases |
| Writes code | Rarely | Yes |
| Risk it removes | Choosing the wrong direction | Building it and not getting it to run |
| Done when | The plan is accepted | The result runs on real data and is tested |
02A simple rule
Hire a consultant when
- You are not sure which AI use cases matter
- You must compare vendors and approaches
- A board or a team needs a shared plan
Hire an integrator when
- The task is clear: a feature, a forecast, an automation
- It has to live inside systems you already run
- Earlier prototypes never reached production
The two are not rivals. Many teams use a consultant to choose and an integrator to build. The mistake is paying a consultant to deliver code, or paying an integrator to decide your strategy.
03Questions to ask each one before you hire
Ask a consultant
- What will I have in hand when you finish?
- Which decisions will this plan let me make?
- Have you carried a recommendation through to production?
Ask an integrator
- Which systems of mine will you connect to, and with what access?
- How will we check that it works on my real data?
- What do I get at handover so my team can run it?
The answers tell you more than a portfolio. A consultant who cannot name a deliverable, or an integrator who cannot describe how the result will be tested, is a risk whatever the price.
04What an integrator actually delivers
- An LLM feature wired into a live CRM, POS or messenger flow.
- Forecasts and dashboards that show an honest range, with deterministic code where the numbers must be exact.
- A written audit of a process or a codebase, with fixes ordered by cost.
- Tests and a handover so your team can run it.
That is the work described on my services pages. Short engagements are $85 per hour up to 20 hours; longer ones by arrangement.
FAQShort answers
- Is an AI integrator the same as a developer?
- An integrator is a developer who specialises in connecting AI to existing business systems and taking it to production, and who also talks to the people who use the result.
- Can a consultant also build?
- Some do, but check what they have shipped. Ask for systems running in production, not slide decks.
- Which is cheaper?
- A consultant can be cheaper for a plan; an integrator is cheaper than a plan that never becomes a working system.
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