My retainers start at $2,474 a month, and every project gets one fixed price in writing. Here is how that compares with what a hire, a freelancer, an agency and a fractional executive cost, using the best published numbers I could find. Where a number is only a vendor's estimate, I say so.
What a full-time AI hire costs
The federal government's closest job category is data scientist. The median data scientist in the Grand Rapids area earned $96,880 in the May 2025 wage data, against $120,230 nationally [1][2]. Machine learning engineer postings run higher: ZipRecruiter put the US average at $128,769 in June 2026 [3].
Salary is not the whole bill. In private industry, benefits were 30% of total pay in June 2026, which adds about 43% on top of wages [4]. Apply that to the Grand Rapids median and the hire costs about $138,000 a year. That is my arithmetic from the two government figures, not a published number.
Then there is the wait. In SHRM's 2025 benchmarking survey, filling a role took about a month and a half, at a median cost of $1,200 per hire before anyone starts work [5].
What the alternatives charge
| Option | Published rate | What kind of number |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance AI engineer | $35 to $60 an hour | Upwork's median band, worldwide [6] |
| Freelance AI strategy consulting | $150 to $500 an hour | Upwork's published range [7] |
| AI development agency, US and Canada | $50 to $99 an hour | Clutch marketplace data [8] |
| Average AI agency project | $120,595 | Clutch; the most common band is $10,000 to $49,999 [8] |
| AI readiness assessment | $3,500 to $8,500 | One consultancy's own price list [9] |
| Fractional chief AI officer | $3,000 to $30,000+ a month | Executive search firm's estimate [10] |
| Team AI workshop | $2,000 to $7,500 a session | Training vendor's estimate [11] |
| AI search visibility retainer, small business | $1,500 to $5,000 a month | Agency's estimate [12] |
How solid these are: the salary, benefits and hiring figures come from government data and a large survey. The Upwork and Clutch figures come from those marketplaces' own listings. The last four rows are estimates from companies that sell the service, with no published method. No independent survey exists yet for assessments, fractional AI leaders, AI training or AI search work.
What Skip the Hire charges
| Service | Where my price starts | Closest market figure |
|---|---|---|
| AI Opportunity Assessment | Quoted after your call | $3,500 to $8,500 [9] |
| Team AI Rollout | From $4,968 | $2,000 to $7,500 for one workshop session [11] |
| Build Sprint | From $5,970 | $10,000 to $49,999 is the most common agency project [8] |
| AI Search Visibility | From $1,974 a month, after setup from $3,968 | $1,500 to $5,000 a month [12] |
| AI Lead Retainer | From $2,474 a month | $3,000 to $30,000+ a month [10] |
| Managed AI Seats | $9.49 per user a month | I found no published figure. The AI vendor bills you separately for the seats. |
These are starting prices. The assessment is quoted case by case, because it depends on the size of the team and how much there is to look at. In every case the exact figure depends on what you ask for, and you get one fixed quote in writing before any work starts. Anything outside that quote is priced separately, in writing, and starts only after you approve it.
The comparison that matters
The retainer comes in three levels, sized by hours: $2,474, $4,986 and $8,470 a month. The middle one is $59,832 a year. That is about 43% of the $138,000 it costs to employ the median Grand Rapids data scientist. The largest retainer comes to $101,640 a year, which is closer to a hire than people expect. At that level of need, hiring starts to make sense, and I will tell you so.
I am not the cheapest option. A freelancer overseas costs less per hour. An agency brings a bigger team. What you get from me is someone local who has done this work inside operating companies, starts this week, and can stop when the work is done.
Sources
- O*NET OnLine, local wages for data scientists in Michigan and Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood (BLS data, May 2025). onetonline.org
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Data Scientists. bls.gov
- ZipRecruiter, Machine Learning Engineer salary, as of June 15, 2026. ziprecruiter.com
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026. bls.gov
- SHRM, 2025 Recruiting Benchmarking report. shrm.org
- Upwork, cost to hire AI engineers. upwork.com
- Upwork, AI automation engineers. upwork.com
- Clutch, AI Pricing Guide, updated September 21, 2026. clutch.co
- Main & Machine, pricing page. mainandmachine.com
- Christian & Timbers, How to hire a fractional chief AI officer, September 22, 2026. christianandtimbers.com
- Elevate Online, Claude training cost. claudetraining.com
- WebFX, GEO pricing, October 15, 2026. webfx.com
Book a 20-minute call to get a fixed quote for your situation.