Beyond the hourly rate: how a consultancy builds AI-based advice
Sound familiar? Your calendar is full until February, yet every week brings questions you could answer in fifteen minutes. If you had the fifteen minutes.
Many consultancies with five to fifty employees live on the hourly rate. The model is honest and easy for clients to follow. But it has a ceiling: more revenue means more hours, and hours are finite. At the same time, clients expect answers within minutes, not at the next appointment. Which business models follow from this is covered in New business models for consultancies. This post is about the practical path there.
🐛 The problem
A consultancy's most valuable asset is its knowledge: methods, templates, checklists and the experience of hundreds of engagements. It is only billed when someone spends time on it. Between appointments it sits unused in project folders, slide decks and the heads of senior consultants.
The small questions still land in the inbox. Either you answer them for free, because a twelve-minute invoice isn't worth it, or they wait. One costs margin, the other trust.
🦋 The pragmatic solution
You don't have to choose between the hourly rate and AI. Personal consulting stays, and a second line of business grows next to it: AI-based advice that works exclusively from your verified knowledge and is billed by usage. Three steps get you there:
🦋 Secure the knowledge. What is needed again and again goes into a shared knowledge base. A good start is the twenty questions clients ask most often, plus the documents you use to answer them today.
🦋 Curate. Every source gets an owner and a review date, and outdated material is deleted. The AI advisor answers only from this collection and says "I don't know" when it doesn't. Why selection matters more than volume is explained in The superpower is curation.
🦋 Commercialise. Instead of hours, you bill credits. On violet dragonfly they are called Wingbeats: clients pay per interaction, whether with your Wingmate or with you in person. Payment runs through the platform, with no separate invoice and no framework contract.
What this could look like
Take an HR consultancy with twelve employees. It uploads its templates for employment contracts, absence policies and appraisal meetings, along with the answers to typical questions from its engagements. A senior consultant reviews the collection and releases it.
On a Sunday evening, the HR manager of an SME asks the consultancy's Wingmate how to word a dismissal during the probation period. She gets an answer that points to the right template. Her second question concerns a deadlocked conflict in her team. The Wingmate hands that one, with the full conversation, to a consultant who takes over on Monday morning. Both are billed in Wingbeats. The conflict becomes an engagement at the hourly rate.
Starting small pays off: one subject area, twenty questions, one month of trial operation with three existing clients. Reviewing the conversations afterwards shows which questions are missing and where expanding is worthwhile.
And if clients would rather talk to people?
They should. AI-based advice takes load off the conversation; it doesn't replace it. The Wingmate handles routine questions. Judgement, empathy and difficult decisions stay with the specialist, and the handover happens without a break in the conversation. People stay at the centre: AI gives you wings, it doesn't replace you.
Benefits at a glance
🦋 Additional revenue that is not tied to your available hours.
🦋 Small questions are billed instead of given away or left waiting.
🦋 Your knowledge stays in the company, even when people leave.
🦋 Clients get answers around the clock, each with its source.
🦋 Short enquiries turn into new engagements.
Conclusion
The hourly rate sells your time, AI-based advice sells your knowledge. Offer both and you grow without filling your calendar any further.
👉 Which twenty questions do you answer again and again today without billing for them? See how getting started as a Companion works on the For Companions page.
(AI generated) · Member of swissAI, the Swiss user association for artificial intelligence
Frequently asked questions about AI-based advice for consultancies
How does a consultancy bill for AI-based advice?
With a credit system instead of hours. On violet dragonfly the unit is called Wingbeats: clients pay per interaction, regardless of whether the Wingmate or the specialist answers. Payment is handled through the integrated Stripe checkout, with no separate invoice or framework contract.
Does AI-based advice replace hourly consulting?
No, it complements it. The Wingmate answers routine questions from the consultancy's verified knowledge. Complex, sensitive or new questions go to a specialist together with the full conversation. These often lead to new engagements that are still billed by the hour.
What knowledge do you need to get started?
One subject area is enough. A proven start is the roughly twenty most frequent client questions plus the documents the team uses to answer them today. Every source gets an owner and a review date. Reviewing the first conversations shows where knowledge is missing.
The human stays at the centre — AI amplifies, it never replaces.