What an AI project really costs a Monaco company

Nobody will tell you a number on a web page, and anybody who does is guessing. But the structure of the cost is knowable, and once you know it, a proposal becomes easy to read.

Three parts to every price

The build: the work of designing, connecting and testing the automation, paid once. The run: hosting, monitoring, fixing and reporting, paid monthly. The model usage: what the AI providers charge per word read and written, which for a company of nine people is small and should be shown separately. A proposal that blurs the three is hiding something, usually the second.

Four things that move the build price

How many tasks are in scope. How many tools must be connected, and whether they have interfaces (an old ERP with no API can double the work). How much judgement the task needs, because a step that needs a decision needs a person in the loop and the design around it. How sensitive the data is, because a regulated client file needs controls, documentation and testing that a supplier order does not. Ask any agency how each of the four applies to you; the answer tells you whether they looked.

Why fixed prices per step

Hourly billing rewards slowness and leaves you holding the risk. A fixed price for each step, agreed before the step starts, puts the risk where it belongs. Our sequence: the quick-check is free; the two-week prototype has a fixed price written in the note; the build has a fixed price quoted after the prototype, when both sides know exactly what is being built; the run is a monthly amount you can stop. No step obliges you to the next.

What the Principality covers

Extended Monaco Entreprises and the Fonds Bleu support digital projects of Monaco companies, under conditions and ceilings that change. We check eligibility during the quick-check and help with the file; our guide on Government support has the current details and their sources. For a company of nine people the support can carry a meaningful share of a first project.

What you should own at the end

The code, documented. The written rules the system follows. The log. The data, which never left your tools. If a proposal does not say who owns these, ask; if the answer is a licence, the price you are reading is a rental.