Compare Your Options
Big 5 rigor, or
a Big 5 invoice?
Large consulting firms do excellent AI work for large companies. The frameworks are real, the rigor is real, and so is the six-figure proposal that lands on the desk of a company that needed a pilot, not a transformation program. We use the same consulting discipline. We just deliver it at the speed and the price a growing company can act on.
There are companies that should hire the big firm, and the honest section below says which.
Side by Side
How they stack up
Big-firm figures are typical ranges for AI strategy engagements at the smaller end of their practice, not quotes.
Figures for the alternative are typical ranges, not quotes. Your numbers will differ, and we would rather you check them than take ours.
When to Pick Which
Which one fits your situation?
Six situations we hear on discovery calls, and the honest call for each.
You are a large enterprise with a transformation budget
Big firm
If you have a procurement function, a transformation budget, and an internal team to receive a program of work, the big firm is built for you and we are not. Hire them.
One leader can approve this in a conversation
GrowthUP
Our engagements are priced so a founder or a VP can say yes without a committee. That is deliberate, and it is where most of our clients live.
You need a board-ready deck more than a working pilot
Big firm, or neither
Big firms produce excellent decks. If the deck is the deliverable, they will do it better. If the deck is supposed to lead to work, the audit produces a decision document in 48 hours for $495.
You have tried AI and nothing stuck
GrowthUP
That is a workflow and adoption problem, and it is fixed in the room with your team, not in a strategy phase. The workshop is built for exactly it.
Your AI work has to integrate with a global ERP rollout
Big firm
Enterprise systems integration at scale is their core business. We do not do it and will say so on the first call.
You want the rigor without the program
GrowthUP
Big 5 consulting discipline, one accountable owner per pilot, measured outcomes, and governance first, delivered in weeks at a price that fits. That is the whole positioning: Big 5 rigor, at the speed of AI.
The Honest Answer
Where the big firm wins
At enterprise scale, nobody beats the large firms: the bench, the global reach, the systems integration, and the ability to staff a hundred people on a program. If that is your company, that is your answer, and we will say so.
Where they lose is at the size where the proposal is bigger than the problem. A growing company that needs one proven pilot, a trained team, and a senior voice it can afford every month is better served by someone who shows up personally, moves in weeks, and prices for a single yes. That is us, and it is the gap we built the firm to fill.
Run Your Own Numbers
Start with one task, not a transformation
The calculator does in a minute what the discovery phase of a big engagement does in a month: it tells you whether one repeated task is worth piloting. Run it before you take any proposal.
Questions
The questions behind the question
What does Big 5 consulting rigor at the speed of AI actually mean?
The same discipline the large firms use: define the business problem before the tool, one accountable owner per pilot, a measured outcome, and governance written first. Delivered by a senior practitioner in weeks instead of by a program team in quarters, at a price a single leader can approve.
Can you work alongside a big firm?
Yes, and it happens. The large firm owns the enterprise strategy and we run the team workshops and the adoption work on the ground, where the people are. The two jobs are different and they do not compete.
What does GrowthUP cost?
The AI Opportunity Audit is $495 and credits toward anything you book within 30 days. Workshops run $1,500 to $3,000. Advisory is a custom monthly retainer scoped on a discovery call. Every price is on one page.
The rigor, without the program.
Start with the $495 audit. The report lands in 48 hours and the fee comes off whatever you book next.
Book Your AI Opportunity AuditWant to talk it through first? Book a free 30-minute discovery call.