Our consultants use frameworks that most firms keep behind a subscription. These are those frameworks, written out in full: vendor grids, market sizing, evaluation scorecards, cost models and go-to-market strategy. No gates, no lead-capture forms.
Every major AI vendor now sells engineers who move in with the customer. Who each option suits, what they cost, and the one piece of work to finish before any of them start billing.
Buyer's guideSelection, risk and compliance are three different jobs sold under one label, at prices two orders of magnitude apart. Which firm does which, and how to buy the one you actually need.
Buyer's guideNobody actually needs "a Gartner". They need the grids, the inquiry calls or the data, and each of the three has substitutes priced from free to a fraction of a seat.
Buyer's guideMost scoping is sold by firms bidding to win the build it scopes. The market in 2026, what each tier costs, and how to keep the estimate honest.
Buyer's guideThe most crowded label in software services, sorted: who is actually worth evaluating, who each firm suits, and the four questions that separate agent builders from rebrands.
Analyst firmsGartner publishes no rate card, so the question gets answered badly. Here is what is publicly reported, what the money buys, and when it is worth paying.
CostingResearch is priced by method, not by output, which is why two quotes for the same brief can differ by an order of magnitude.
CostingMost quotes price the build and ignore the running, which is why agent budgets are wrong in a consistent direction.
ProcurementAI systems are probabilistic, they change when the vendor updates a model, and your data may travel further than you agreed. A general checklist scores none of that.
AI deliveryThe striking thing about failed AI pilots is not that they fail. It is that they usually work, and stop anyway, somewhere between the demo and Tuesday.
AI integrationThe hard part of an AI project is never the model. It is everything around it, and that can only be learned from inside the customer's workflow.
Go-to-marketMost GTM advice is written for launches. This is for the more common situation: a real product, real users, and growth that has stopped explaining itself.
Context engineeringCoding agents fail on unfamiliar frameworks for a boring reason: they are guessing from training data that predates your version. A context file fixes it.
ScopingThe document that turns "we should probably do something about this" into work a team can start on Monday, and a number a sponsor can approve.
CostingToken pricing is the visible cost and rarely the largest one. A defensible estimate models the unit economics, the retry tail, and the humans who stay in the loop.
Decision frameworksMost build-versus-buy analyses compare a build estimate against a first-year licence fee. That comparison is wrong in both directions, and predictably so.
ProcurementWeighted criteria, anchored scales, and the four failure modes that quietly turn a scorecard into a rubber stamp for a decision already made.
Market sizingTop-down and bottom-up market sizing, why serious analysts always run both, and how to present a number that a CFO cannot dismantle in thirty seconds.
ResearchThe nine-part structure that credible market reports share, and the sourcing discipline that makes them survive a hostile read.
Vendor evaluationThree analyst firms, three two-dimensional grids, three different questions. Knowing which is which decides whether your citation strengthens an argument or quietly undermines it.
Every framework here is one the bench applies for real. Describe what you need and a specialist returns the finished artifact: report, plan, scorecard or deck.