Justin DonaldJoe PolishJon Vroman+ Trusted by 100+ founders

Hire an AI consultant who doesn't stop at a slide deck.

We consult your business, then place the person who builds it.

Most AI consultants hand you a plan and leave. We map how your business runs, put it all in one second brain, then place a certified AI Operator on your team full-time to build it, run it and fix it when it breaks.

Consult, organize, implement. Meet 3 certified AI Operators in 24 hours. Your first build is live by day 14.
See If You Qualify See the 3 steps

$3,600 a month, month to month. 3 certified profiles in 24 hours.

A founder holds a paper plan while an AI Operator at a desk turns it into glowing, connected app tiles
100+
Founders
served
40+ hrs
Of training
before certification
25 pts
Scored 5-day
final project
24 hrs
To your first
three profiles
At a glance

Hiring an AI consultant through Pareto

One call maps where AI goes first. Then a certified AI Operator joins your team full-time to build it, run it and fix it.

What you getThe AI Activation Call, your Business Second Brain, and a certified AI Operator who builds and runs it
Price$3,600/month, month to month, plus a one-time $3,000 placement fee. It's paid once, on your call, and comes back in full if none of your 3 profiles fit. Or $10,000 a quarter, or $36,000 a year
Time to startMeet 3 certified AI Operators within 24 hours of your call
Who builds itYour operator, full-time, on your real tools
Who owns itYou. Every account stays in your name, documented in an Ownership Binder
GuaranteesPick before you pay, and the Replacement Guarantee
Before you hire

How to hire an AI consultant: five checks

Whoever you hire, us or anyone else, run these five checks before you sign.

  1. Plan or builder? Decide first. If your team can build, a consultant's plan is enough. If nobody can, you're hiring for the build.
  2. Proof on tools like yours. Ask for one thing they built that still runs, on tools close to your stack.
  3. Your data in week one. A good consultant starts on your real inbox, CRM and calls, not a generic workshop.
  4. Your accounts. Every login, workflow and prompt should live in your company's name from day one.
  5. Who maintains it. Ask who fixes a break in month three, and what that costs.

Rates, packages and red flags are in our guide to hiring an AI consultant for small business. If you'd rather hand one defined project to a firm, compare what each AI automation agency publishes first.

The offer

Our AI consulting in three steps: consult, organize, implement

An AI consultant sells you step one. We do all three, and the third one doesn't end when the engagement does.

1Consult

The AI Activation Call

We map how your business actually runs and decide where AI goes first. This is the part most AI consultants sell on its own. Here it is day one.

  • How work moves today, tool by tool
  • Where the business still waits on you
  • What AI takes first, and what stays human
2Organize

Your Business Second Brain

Your offers, processes, voice and decisions in one place your operator and your AI tools use. AI that doesn't know your business writes generic work. This is the fix.

  • Offers and how you sell them
  • Processes, written down once
  • Your voice and the decisions you've made
3Implement

A certified AI Operator, full-time

They join your Slack and your tools, then build and run what the Activation Call found: automations, internal tools, dashboards and pages, built with AI.

  • Activate, Build, Run
  • The Friday Note: what shipped, what's next
  • Run Watch on every automation
  • Ownership Binder: every account in your name

What implementation looks like

The consultant's job happens in week one. Then the operator keeps going.

Day 1

Pick your operator

Within 24 hours of your call you meet 3 certified AI Operators. Interview them and choose.

Activate

The AI Activation Call

We map how your business actually runs, decide where AI goes first, and build your Business Second Brain.

Build

They build it

Automations, internal tools, dashboards and pages, built with AI on your real tools. First build live by day 14.

Run

They run it

Run Watch on every automation. Every Friday, a note: what shipped, and the next ideas. You reply yes or no.

Inbox triage, with replies drafted in your voice
Lead follow-up that never forgets
Call notes straight into your CRM
Internal tools, dashboards, landing pages and quizzes, built with Claude Code

You don't have an AI problem. You have nobody whose job it is.More on the role: what an AI operator is, and what they build.

The price

What our AI consulting costs, builder included

A consultant bills for advice by the hour, the project or the month. Our guide to AI consultant costs for small business lists published rates for each. We charge one flat monthly price, and the person who builds it is part of it. For scale: a US software developer earns a median $135,980 a year before benefits, and a US hire takes about six weeks to fill.

  • The AI Activation CallWe map how your business runs and decide where AI goes first.
  • Your Business Second BrainYour offers, processes, voice and decisions in one place your operator and your AI tools use.
  • Your AI Operator, full-timeA certified AI builder on your team: your Slack, your tools, your hours. Builds with Claude Code.
  • Run Watch and the Friday NoteEvery automation watched and fixed. Every Friday: what shipped and what's next.
  • Ownership BinderEverything documented. Every account in your name.
  • Always currentMonday training calls and Friday office hours for your operator, every week.
  • Builder backupSenior builders and the Leverage School community behind your operator for the hard builds.
  • A Talent Success ManagerCheck-ins, performance and escalations, handled for you.
Month to month
$3,600/mo
or $10,000 a quarter · $36,000 a year
$3,600/month, month to month, plus a one-time $3,000 placement fee. It's paid once, on your call, and comes back in full if none of your 3 profiles fit.
See If You Qualify
3 certified profiles within 24 hours of your call. You choose.

Every way to hire AI help, priced over 12 months, is in our AI operator cost guide.

The risk is on us

Two guarantees, so you never get stuck

Pick before you pay

Meet 3 certified AI Operators within 24 hours of your call and choose yours. Your subscription starts only when you pick. The $3,000 placement fee, paid on your call, comes back in full if none of the 3 fit.

The Replacement Guarantee

If your operator can't build what you need, or ever stops being the right fit, we replace them fast, with a full handover, for as long as you're with us.

Proof, not promises

Certified on a build, not an interview

Anyone can talk well about AI. Every operator we certify finishes 40+ hours of training, then a 5-day final project where they build a full funnel with AI, scored on a 25-point rubric, plus an interview.

Final project · GabrielFounder Freedom Calculator

A calculator app a founder fills in, built and shipped inside the 5-day final project.

Final project · Gorro6-Minute Inbox Audit

An inbox audit run by Claude, with the landing page around it, built in the same 5 days.

Final project · FlorenciaLaw Firm Capacity Audit

An audit built for law firms, delivered as part of a full AI-built funnel.

Final projects from our AI Operator certification, shown with the builders' consent to illustrate the standard. They are not client work.

Trained on
36,186people applied, 2024 to 2026
3,250joined live training
518passed the scored final project
15% vs 6.9%Bootcamp 7 pass rate: Claude Code users vs non-users
7% to 18%applications mentioning AI, late 2024 to 2026

From our Latin America Remote Talent Report. Pass rates are the share who passed the scored final project.

Kasim Aslam and Ivan Bunin, co-founders of Pareto Talent, in Colombia
Ivan Bunin
Co-Founder, Pareto Talent and the Leverage School

I started as Kasim Aslam's assistant in 2018. I learned the job, then the tech, then the whole stack, and later ran the company as CEO. The thing I learned in that seat: the plan is never the hard part. Somebody has to own it on a Tuesday afternoon when it breaks.

Today Kasim and I run the Leverage School, where we teach founders to build with AI every week, and Pareto Talent, where we've trained and placed operators with 100+ founders. Our AI consulting is both in one: we do the thinking with you, and our curriculum sits inside your business, full time.

Who should you hire?

AI consultant vs AI Operator vs agency vs freelancer

They aren't interchangeable. Each one is built for a different job, so the right answer depends on what you're actually missing.

Short answer: hire an AI consultant if you have builders and need a plan. Hire an agency for one big build that needs several specialists at once. Hire a freelancer for one small, well-defined task. If you need someone to decide, build, run and fix your AI every week, you need the consulting and the operator together.
OptionDecides what to automateBuilds itFixes it when it breaksKnows your business by month 6You own the workDeep specialist buildsTypical cost
AI consultant
Advises, then leaves		511234Hourly, per project or a monthly retainer
AI automation agency
A team you rent for projects		353225Build fee, often plus a retainer
Freelancer
From a marketplace, by the task		232233By the hour or the task
AI Operator
Pareto: consult, organize, implement		445552$3,600 a month plus a one-time $3,000 placement fee

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Our scoring, from 1 to 5, based on how each option is usually sold: what the engagement includes, who keeps the work running and who owns it. We're Pareto Talent, so we're not neutral. Notice where we score low: one operator can't match a team of specialists on a big parallel build.

When an AI consultant on their own is the right call

A good consultant earns their fee when you already have people who can build, and nobody has decided what to build. They rank your opportunities and hand over a roadmap. If your team will execute it, that is money well spent.

When it isn't

Most founders we talk to have plenty of ideas, pay for ChatGPT, Claude or Zapier, and still have projects that stall or wait on them. A plan is the cheap part. The expensive part is the six months after it, when somebody has to build each piece, connect it to your real tools, watch it run and fix it when a form changes. If nobody has that job, the roadmap sits in a folder.

Going deeper: AI automation agencies vs an in-house AI Operator, AI automation consultant vs AI operator, and, if you're building a software product, hiring an AI developer.

Common Questions

AI consulting: what founders ask

What does an AI consultant do?+
An AI consultant studies how your business runs, finds the work AI could take over, recommends tools and writes a plan in priority order. Some build a first version. Most hand the plan back to your team and leave. Our AI consulting starts the same way, on the AI Activation Call, then a certified AI Operator joins your team to build and run what the call found.
What is the going rate for an AI consultant?+
Independent AI consultants charge $100 to $350 an hour, a fixed first project runs $2,500 to $25,000, and a small-business retainer $1,500 to $8,000 a month, per two pricing guides updated in September and October 2026 (sources in our guide to the AI consultant for small business). Pareto is $3,600/month, month to month, plus a one-time $3,000 placement fee. It's paid once, on your call, and comes back in full if none of your 3 profiles fit. The full-time operator who builds it is included.
How do I hire an AI consultant?+
Decide whether you need a plan or a builder, then check five things: they have built on tools like yours, they start with your real data, they put every account in your name, they say who maintains the work after launch, and the price covers building, not only advice. If you need the plan and the builder in one, book a call and meet 3 certified AI Operators within 24 hours.
What do AI consulting services include?+
Usually an audit of how work moves through the business, a ranked list of what to automate, tool recommendations and sometimes one or two first builds. Ours include three things: the AI Activation Call, where we map the business and decide where AI goes first; your Business Second Brain; and a certified AI Operator who joins full-time to build and run it.
What's the difference between an AI consultant and an AI Operator?+
A consultant advises, usually for a set number of hours or one project, then leaves your team to build and maintain the result. An AI Operator is one full-time person inside your business who builds the automations, runs them and fixes them when they break. The consultant writes the plan. The operator stays and builds it.
Should I hire an AI consultant or an AI consulting agency?+
Hire a consultant if you have builders and need a plan. Hire an agency for one large, defined build that needs several specialists at once. With an agency you rent a team. With an operator you own one. If you need a steady stream of builds that someone owns and maintains, that is the job of a full-time AI Operator.
Who owns what gets built?+
You do. Every account, workflow and prompt stays in your name, and everything is documented in your Ownership Binder. If we ever replace your operator, the work is handed over in full, so nothing depends on one person.
How fast can I start, and is there a contract?+
Book a 30-minute call. Within 24 hours of it you meet 3 certified AI Operators, interview them and choose one. Your first build is live by day 14. There is no long contract: $3,600/month, month to month, plus a one-time $3,000 placement fee. It's paid once, on your call, and comes back in full if none of your 3 profiles fit. You can also pay $10,000 a quarter or $36,000 a year.
Sources
  1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Software Developers (15-1252), May 2025: national median annual wage $135,980.
  2. SHRM, State of Recruiting 2025: median time to fill is roughly a month and a half for executive and nonexecutive roles.
  3. Pareto Talent, Latin America Remote Talent Report, 2026: applicants, training and final project pass rates, 2024 to 2026.
  4. Pareto Talent prices and guarantees: the AI Operator page, October 2026.
AI consulting that ships

Meet your 3 AI Operators in 24 hours

Answer a few quick questions and book a 30-minute call. Within 24 hours of it you see 3 certified AI Operator profiles and choose who joins your team. Then the AI Activation Call decides what they build first.

See If You Qualify

✓ 3 certified profiles in 24 hours  ·  ✓ Fee back in full if none fit  ·  ✓ Month to month, $3,600/mo