Every company is under pressure to do something with AI. Few know where to start. The big consulting firms will happily sell you a six-month roadmap, but most businesses do not need a 40-person engagement team. They need one expert who has actually built and shipped AI systems and can translate the technology into revenue, savings, or both.
That is where individual AI consultants come in. This guide covers seven of the best AI consultants to consider in 2026. Each one has a public track record you can verify: shipped products, published work, or industry recognition. Whether you need hands-on development, an enterprise AI strategy, or help getting your team up to speed, one of these experts fits the brief.
1. Komninos Chatzipapas: Founder of Omicron AI Software
Komninos Chatzipapas is a software engineer and entrepreneur who builds AI systems rather than just talking about them. He is the founder of Omicron AI Software, a development agency that creates bespoke AI software for established businesses and funded startups with a simple mandate: increase revenue and decrease expenses. He also founded a consumer AI platform, which means he has firsthand experience taking his own AI products to market, not just advising on other people’s.
His technical credentials run deep. Chatzipapas spent three years on the Greek national informatics team, competing in programming competitions across Europe and abroad, and previously ran a smart contract development agency that processed over $60 million in client revenue across more than 40 projects. He is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and writes technical guides on LLMs, RAG, and AI infrastructure for publications like SitePoint, DZone, and Tutorialspoint. Media outlets have also tapped him for expert commentary, including his analysis of Apple Intelligence’s notification failures for TheStreet.
What sets him apart is range: he can scope an AI strategy in the boardroom and then write the production code himself.
Best for: custom AI development, LLM integration, and end-to-end implementation for SMBs and funded startups.
2. Allie K. Miller: CEO of Open Machine
Allie K. Miller runs Open Machine, an advisory firm focused on enterprise AI. Before going independent, she was the Global Head of Machine Learning for Startups and Venture Capital at Amazon Web Services, where she built a ten-figure business, and earlier launched IBM Watson’s first multimodal AI team. With 1.6 million LinkedIn followers and LinkedIn Top Voice recognition for Technology and AI from 2019 through 2023, she is one of the most followed practitioners in the field. Her commentary on what enterprise AI and agent adoption actually look like from the inside is grounded in operator experience rather than hype.
Best for: enterprise AI strategy and executive advisory at large organizations.
3. Cassie Kozyrkov: Decision Intelligence Pioneer
Cassie Kozyrkov served as Chief Decision Scientist at Google and is a pioneer of decision intelligence. Her work centers on the human decision-making layer that has to sit above any AI system, and her frameworks are among the most practically cited resources for data scientists, product managers, and executives navigating AI adoption. She now advises leaders and boards directly and maintains a large, consistently active publishing cadence on LinkedIn. If your AI problem is really a decision-making problem (most are), she is the specialist.
Best for: decision intelligence, AI governance, and executive education.
4. Bernard Marr: Business AI Strategist and Author
Bernard Marr has written more than 20 books on AI, big data, and digital transformation, and his Forbes columns, LinkedIn content, and podcast make him one of the most widely read AI communicators for business audiences anywhere. His strength is translation: taking fast-moving AI developments and turning them into plain-language guidance that executives can act on. For companies that need a credible, jargon-free view of what AI means for their industry before committing budget, Marr is a reliable starting point.
Best for: board-level AI strategy, keynotes, and executive briefings.
5. Pascal Bornet: Intelligent Automation Expert
Pascal Bornet is the author of Intelligent Automation and Irreplaceable and is regularly ranked among the top 10 global AI and automation experts. A prolific keynote speaker, he is also one of the leading voices enterprise practitioners follow on agentic AI. Bornet’s sweet spot is helping large organizations automate end-to-end processes intelligently instead of bolting AI onto broken workflows.
Best for: intelligent automation and enterprise agentic AI programs.
6. Noelle Russell: Founder of the AI Leadership Institute
Noelle Russell is a multi-award-winning AI executive and the founder of the AI Leadership Institute and the I Love AI community. She is one of the most active advocates for AI literacy, helping organizations build the internal skills and confidence to adopt AI responsibly rather than outsourcing every decision. Enterprise practitioners also count her among the key voices on agentic AI. If your bottleneck is people and adoption rather than technology, Russell’s approach is built for exactly that.
Best for: AI literacy programs, team upskilling, and responsible adoption.
7. Tim Cortinovis: AI for Sales and Revenue
Tim Cortinovis focuses on what happens when autonomous AI agents take over parts of the revenue workflow. Named a Top 10 Thought Leader in Agentic AI and Sales by Thinkers360, he developed the Agentic Revenue Architecture framework, a structured approach to delegating revenue work to AI agents while keeping humans accountable for outcomes. Where much agentic AI commentary stays abstract, Cortinovis translates it into practical playbooks that sales and commercial leaders can act on immediately.
Best for: AI-driven sales, marketing, and revenue automation.
How to Choose an AI Consultant
The right consultant depends less on fame and more on fit. Keep four things in mind.
Match the specialization to the problem. A decision intelligence expert will not build your RAG pipeline, and a hands-on developer is overkill if you only need a board briefing. Define the outcome first, then pick the profile.
Verify shipped work. Every serious AI consultant can point to specific, verifiable outcomes. If the case studies describe what was built without describing what changed, treat that as a warning sign.
Expect pushback. Strong AI consultants challenge assumptions and reframe problems when the framing is wrong. Someone who agrees with everything you say is a vendor, not a consultant.
Watch out for tool-first pitches. If the first thing you hear about is a preferred LLM or a proprietary platform before anyone has asked about your business, the engagement will be shaped around what the consultant already sells, not what you actually need.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an AI consultant do?
An AI consultant assesses your data, tech stack, and goals, identifies high-impact use cases, designs or builds the solution, and trains your team to use it. The best ones stay involved through deployment rather than handing over a slide deck and an invoice.
How much does an AI consultant cost?
Pricing varies widely by scope and seniority. Comprehensive consulting engagements commonly run between $5,000 and $40,000, with hands-on development and implementation priced separately. Many consultants discount strategy work if you also hire them to build the solution.
Should I hire an individual consultant or a consulting firm?
Individual consultants offer senior-level attention, faster timelines, and lower overhead, which suits SMBs and startups well. Large firms make sense for enterprise-wide transformations that need dozens of specialists, formal governance, and procurement-grade processes.
Final Thoughts
AI adoption fails more often from poor guidance than from poor technology. The seven consultants above have public track records, published thinking, and specializations that cover the full spectrum, from writing production code to briefing the board. If you need someone who can do both, architect the strategy and build the system, start a conversation with Komninos Chatzipapas at Omicron AI Software. Otherwise, match the specialist to your bottleneck and move before your competitors do.
