Arte Mentis

Independent AI consulting · San Diego

Services & Rate Card

Every engagement is scoped in writing before it starts: fixed deliverables, a fixed fee, and no vendor commissions on any of it.

Advisory

Assessment $2,800 – $3,200 fixed · 3–4 weeks

Focused AI Assessment

A structured look at one function of your business—the one where the pain is—that ranks where AI would actually pay off, what it would cost, and what to skip. One function done properly beats all of them done thinly, and the report is yours whether or not I do the work that follows.

  • One function or process, chosen together on the fit call
  • Up to four structured interviews with the people who actually do the work
  • A written report, six to eight pages, ranking each opportunity by payoff, cost, and effort
  • A readout call, and numbers that hold up on their own
Adoption $2,250 – $3,000 fixed · 3–4 weeks

AI Adoption Sprint

Your team already pays for AI tools. This gets them used. Hands-on training built from a decade of teaching people to work with complicated systems, a thousand-plus students at UC Santa Cruz and two hundred more at an AI evaluation firm, with materials your team keeps.

  • Use-case mapping by role, so the training is about your work rather than the tools
  • Working sessions with the team, not a slide deck
  • A playbook your team keeps: what to use for what, prompts, and guardrails
  • A follow-up structure that does not depend on me staying
Diligence $1,200 fixed · 1 week

Vendor Second Opinion

Before you sign an AI contract or renewal, an independent read on the pitch already on your table: what is actually being sold, what it really costs to run, and whether there is a cheaper way to get the same result. One vendor, one decision, delivered in writing.

  • What is actually being sold, and what the deck is really claiming
  • The true run-rate cost: seats, usage, implementation, and what it takes to leave
  • The alternative, costed: a cheaper tool or an in-house build
  • A written memo with a recommendation and the reasoning shown

On independence: I take no vendor commissions or referral fees. However, I’ll be straight about the other side of that coin. If the answer is “build it instead,” that could be work I’d do, so the memo prices the build and names other people who could do it. And when the answer is “buy it, you don’t need me,” that is what it says.

Visibility $900 diagnostic · program $4,000 – $9,000

AI Visibility

When a customer asks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Google’s AI who to call, what do they say about you? The diagnostic measures where you stand and ends in a straight go or no-go on whether the full program is worth your money. The program only runs after a go.

  • A fixed panel of realistic customer questions, run across four AI engines, with the baseline recorded
  • An audit of whether AI systems can find and read what’s published about your business
  • A plan to fix wrong answers, stale references, and missing citations, or else an honest no-go

Builds & Ongoing Advisory

Fixed Scope $4,000 – $12,000 · 6–12 weeks

Build & Enable

Turn a proven idea into a service that runs without anyone thinking about it (data enrichment pipelines, retrieval workflows, automated triage). Built on your infrastructure, tested, and handed over documented, so it keeps working after I leave. When a small local model clears the bar, the whole thing can run on hardware you already own.

Retainer $1,500 – $3,000 / month

Ongoing Advisory

A reserved monthly block for owners who want a standing second opinion on technical decisions, tool choices, and internal AI work. I take on one of these at a time, so it comes with actual attention.

Have a specific project in mind?

The first conversation is a 30-minute fit call, not a pitch. If I’m not the right person for it, I’ll say so on the call.

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Callipepla californica. Head down, working the ground. Somebody has to.