Alternatives to Deloitte AI readiness
The Big 4 AI readiness alternative: a paid discovery, run by the consultant who sold it.
A Deloitte, PwC, EY or McKinsey AI readiness engagement typically runs for months, with a fee to match. The work can be real. The timeline, the price and the handoff to a junior team are the problem. Independent AI consultants run the paid discovery themselves on Audity Pro, grounded in the client's own documents and interviews, under their own brand.
What a Big 4 engagement buys
A boardroom-credible logo, deep industry benchmarks, change-management muscle on the ground, and a partner relationship that opens doors. For a large company making a large transformation bet, that's real value, and none of this is a knock on the work. The question is whether every AI readiness assessment needs to start there.
Where the Big 4 model strains for AI readiness work
- Months-long timelines, when the client wants to know what to do this quarter.
- The partner sells, a junior team delivers. The people who scoped the work aren't the ones writing the report.
- A firm-wide methodology with an industry overlay. Customization happens late, at partner review.
- Procurement-grade pricing for the assessment alone, before any implementation starts.
- An in-house implementation arm. Readiness recommendations tend to flow into it.
- Slide decks built for steering committees, not for the operators who have to act on them.
How an independent consultant on Audity Pro competes
- You run it yourself. The consultant who sold the discovery is the one who runs it and stands behind the findings.
- Grounded in the client's own evidence. Document intake for their SOPs, security policies, marketing plans, org charts and slide deck, then stakeholder interviews generated to fill the gaps.
- Contradictions caught before the readout. Audity flags where what people say doesn't match the documents.
- Your frameworks, not a generic one. A scored gap analysis on your frameworks, an ROI model, and a roadmap the client can act on.
- Built for the operators and the board. A client-ready report and slide deck, white-labeled, plus Stakeholder Memos that turn one meeting into buy-in across the client's org.
- In the client's language and currency. Outputs translate into other languages and use the client's local currency.
Big 4 readiness assessment vs an independent consultant on Audity Pro
| Dimension | Big 4 readiness engagement | Audity |
|---|---|---|
| Typical timeline | Months from kickoff to final report. | Set by you and your client, not a staffing plan. Pro includes 5 AI Discoveries a month. |
| Who writes the report | Junior consultants, reviewed by partners. | The consultant who sold the work. |
| Methodology | A firm-wide framework with an industry overlay. | A scored gap analysis on your frameworks. |
| Evidence | Industry benchmarks and partner experience. | The client's own documents and stakeholder interviews, checked against each other. |
| Stakeholder interviews | A large interview program run over weeks. | Questions generated to fill the gaps in the client's documents. |
| ROI | Built by the engagement team. | An ROI model built from the discovery. |
| Implementation | Recommendations often flow into the firm's own implementation arm. | You and the client decide what happens next. |
| Deliverable | A steering-committee deck, written for partners. | A client-ready report, slide deck and roadmap, plus Stakeholder Memos for the wider org. |
| Brand on the cover | The Big 4 logo. | Yours. Everything is white-labeled. |
Hire the Big 4 when
- The board needs the logo on the cover for governance reasons.
- The transformation budget is enormous and the risk has to be spread.
- You need change management on the ground across several countries.
- Industry benchmarks and proprietary research are the deliverable.
An independent consultant on Audity Pro fits when
- The client can't wait months for an answer.
- The client wants recommendations that aren't tied to an implementation arm.
- The client wants the senior person on every page, not a partner-fronted team.
- The findings need to come from the client's own documents and people, not industry composites.
- The report should carry your brand, not a big-firm logo.
Common questions
Compete with the Big 4 on the work, not the logo.
Run your first paid discovery on Audity Pro, grounded in your client's own documents and interviews, under your brand.
Pro: 60-day money-back guarantee. Prices are listed in USD. Checkout shows your local currency and adds any local tax.