Framework + advisory + independent review. Your engineers run the audit; I keep them out of the traps I have seen. Half the price of full delivery, half the delivery.
You are the CTO or technical founder at a Series B or C company. You have 10 to 50 engineers. Your AI is in production and touching a regulated vertical. You have three engineers who could probably run an internal audit if you gave them a sprint.
You are also right that they could. That is not the question.
The question is: will they know which failure modes to look for, will they know what an examiner looks for, and will their audit produce artifacts your successor or your regulator or your board can trust six months from now.
Three engineers, six weeks, sixty percent dedicated equals one hundred and eight engineer-weeks. At a fully-loaded cost of four thousand per engineer-week, the internal DIY path is $432,000 in engineering payroll alone, plus opportunity cost from features not shipping.
Your team will be learning the pathology library as they go. External practitioners have already learned it across other engagements. Your team will find what confirms your design choices. External review will find what threatens them.
The point is not that internal audit is wrong. It is that internal audit is expensive and biased, and that expense is invisible on your P&L until you compare it against alternatives.
Enterprise DIY buys you the framework, the compliance mapping, the independent-eye review, and the executive briefing at $12,000 plus your team's time. Full Enterprise buys you regulator-defensible attestation at $35,000 to $50,000 without your team's time.
Scope, success criteria, framework introduction. Your AI engineering lead and audit sponsor attend.
Audit methodology, compliance mapping for your vertical, sensor deployment guide. Your team keeps the docs and uses them for future internal audits.
Structured scoping template. Your team completes within 5 business days.
60 minutes each, weekly during the engagement. Q&A, interpretation, and unblocking. Your team drives the agenda.
5-10 page review of your team's audit draft. Findings validated, findings challenged, missing findings surfaced, remediation prioritization.
I present your team's findings to your leadership with independent framing. Up to 8 attendees.
Regulator-defensible independent attestation. Your team ran the audit, so the independence claim belongs to them, not to contrarianAI. If a regulator or auditor challenges the independence of the findings, this tier is not the right shape.
Kevin-drafted board memo. Kevin-drafted technical deep-dive. Sensor deployment plan drafted by Kevin. Those all belong to the full Enterprise SKU.
If your organization is in a regulated vertical with active regulator scrutiny, the DIY tier is not the right shape. The full Enterprise SKU exists for that case.
3-4 week engagement. Your team runs the audit; I advise and review.
Milestone billing: 30% initiation / 40% midpoint / 30% final. Net-30 payment terms.
Upgrade to full Enterprise SKU at 15% discount if you later need regulator-defensible attestation.
| Dimension | DIY internal (no external help) | Enterprise DIY ($12K) | Full Enterprise ($35-50K) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explicit cash cost | ~$0 | $12,000 | $35-50K |
| Loaded team cost | ~$432K in engineer-weeks | ~$160-200K (team + advisory) | ~$70-90K (audit + minimal team) |
| Time-to-findings | 6-12 weeks in practice | 3-4 weeks | 3-6 weeks |
| Regulator-defensible? | No | No | Yes |
| Independent review | No | Yes (Kevin critique) | Yes (Kevin delivery) |
| Team learning | Yes | Yes + guardrails | Minimal |
No obligation. I will tell you honestly which tier fits your organization.
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