How much does AI cost a Swiss SME?

"How much does AI cost?" has no single answer, but that does not make the answer vague. An SME's AI budget breaks down into four lines, and each one can be costed before you sign anything. Here are those lines, our public prices (excluding VAT), typical figures for your company size and the questions that prevent unpleasant surprises.

The four lines of an AI budget

1. Licences. A per-user monthly subscription to the business version of an assistant (ChatGPT Business, Claude Team, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gemini for Google Workspace). Expect a few tens of francs per user per month, at the vendor's public price. This is the only line everyone sees. There are two traps: buying for the whole company when use is concentrated in part of the team, and forgetting that a licence gives access to the tool, not to high-volume processing, which is billed by usage.

2. Set-up. Choosing the tool, opening and configuring accounts with your IT team, writing the data rules, preparing the first use cases. Skip this step and everyone uses the tool their own way, with nobody quite sure what is allowed.

3. Training and follow-up. The line most often forgotten, and the one that decides whether the licences get used. A one-off session is quickly forgotten; it is the weeks that follow, with corrections and new uses, that turn the tool into a habit.

4. Running costs. These only appear with automation: AI model usage, hosting, monitoring, fixes. They track the volume processed and can become the largest line once an automation is busy. They should therefore be estimated in writing before anything goes live.

Our prices, line by line

• To get started: the AI Workshop. A 4-hour half day at CHF 1,900, or a 7-hour full day at CHF 2,900, per group of up to 20 participants. Your teams practise on their real tasks and leave with three priority use cases, ready-to-use prompts and a one-page sheet on which data is allowed. No licence is needed to take part.
• To equip and support a team: AI Adoption Support. Either a fixed-price engagement quoted for a defined result (for example, equipping one team on three use cases), or a monthly subscription from CHF 1,800 a month for 10 hours, with an initial three-month commitment, i.e. CHF 5,400.
• To connect AI to your software: AI Engineering. A scoping phase of one to three weeks, then a firm quote for the agreed scope; or a subscription when several projects follow one another. Development, licences, hosting and usage are shown separately.

Which subscription plan for your size

The hourly rate falls with volume: CHF 180 an hour on Essential, CHF 170 on Deployment, CHF 160 on Transformation, against CHF 200 outside a subscription. Up to 25% of unused hours roll over to the following month. After three months, the subscription can be cancelled with 30 days' notice. These amounts cover our work; licences and running costs come on top. Full details are on the pricing page.

Three typical budgets

• Trying it out without commitment. A half-day AI Workshop at CHF 1,900, followed by a 30-day pilot with licences for a few people. The guide on getting started with AI in an SME describes this first cycle.
• Equipping a team of ten. The workshop, then AI Adoption Support on the Essential plan for three months (CHF 5,400), plus ten licences at the vendor's price. Licences are estimated in writing before you buy.
• Automating a first process. A scoping phase, then a firm quote for the build. Monthly running costs (usage, hosting) are estimated for your volume before going live. The guide on putting an AI agent on a real process walks through the steps.

Questions to ask before you sign

1. What is fixed and what is variable? Licences and the subscription are fixed; usage varies. A quote that mixes the two is impossible to read.
2. What volume has been estimated, and at what price? Ask for figures: how many documents, emails or reminders a month, and the resulting cost.
3. What happens if the volume doubles? Is there an alert threshold before the estimate is exceeded?
4. Can I take over the running of it myself? With what documentation, and who owns the code and the accounts?
5. What happens if the results on my own documents are not good enough? What is the stopping criterion, and by what date?

The most common budgeting mistakes

Budgeting only for licences. A tool that is bought and barely used is the most expensive spend of all.

Paying for several tools for the same job. When everyone picks their own, the company funds duplicates with no common rules.

Counting hours as francs. Hours freed up are capacity. They become savings when a cost is avoided, extra workload is absorbed without hiring, or additional work is billed. The ROI guide shows the full calculation with a worked example.

In practice

Start small, measure, then decide. If you are unsure about the first step, a twenty-minute conversation is enough to identify it: tell us about your situation.