For a food and drink SME, the right AI vendor for food manufacturers is not the one that delivers the most impressive project. It is the one that will maintain the tool and keep improving it three years from now. IT consultancies and AI agencies sell a project, billed and then maintained separately. A specialist vendor sells a product already in service, one that knows your trade from day one.
The offers keep coming: IT consultancies launching an AI practice, AI agencies set up in a few months, freelancers, software vendors. This article compares these models on what matters once the tool is delivered: maintenance, improvements, three-year cost and knowledge of your sector. We are a software vendor ourselves. So we also say when an IT consultancy or an agency remains the right choice.
Key takeaway
IT consultancies and AI agencies bill a project, then maintenance on top, commonly 15 to 20% of the development cost per year. According to MIT, an AI tool bought from a specialist vendor succeeds about three times as often as an internal build. Food industry knowledge is shared across customers at a vendor; at a generalist, it is paid for again on every project. An IT consultancy remains relevant for work that touches your whole information system.
IT consultancy, AI agency, freelancer, vendor: four ways to buy AI
Behind the same word, "AI", sit four very different business models. What separates them is not technical skill. It is what you are actually buying.
| Model | What you buy | Billing | Food industry knowledge | After delivery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generalist IT consultancy | A bespoke project | Billed days or fixed-price project | Depends on the consultant assigned | Maintenance under a separate contract |
| AI agency | A prototype, then a project | Fixed price, often after a paid POC | Rare, the agency works for every sector | Maintenance optional, changes quoted separately |
| Freelancer | An expert's time | Day rate | Depends on the profile | Relies on a single person |
| Specialist vendor | A product in service | Monthly subscription | Built into the product | Maintenance and improvements included |
The first three sell time, turned into a deliverable. The fourth sells a tool already running at other companies in your sector. On price, an IT consultancy project usually starts at around €15,000, with senior consultants billed at €800 to €1,500 a day, as we detail in our comparison of AI agents for the food industry.
None of these models is bad in itself. But they do not meet the same need, and most food and drink SMEs that call us need a tool that works on Monday morning, not a construction site.
Bespoke AI project or product: what happens after delivery
On go-live day, a bespoke project and a product look alike. The gap widens over the following months.
Maintenance, billed separately
An AI agent is not frozen software. Your ERP gets a new version, a customer moves to EDI, the underlying AI models are updated or retired by their providers. Each change can break a connector or degrade an answer.
In a project, this maintenance comes under an application maintenance contract, which agencies themselves commonly price at 15 to 20% of the development cost per year. At a vendor, it is included in the subscription, because a fix made for one customer benefits all the others.
Improvements, quoted separately
Six months after go-live, you want to track a new channel, include year-end rebates, cross-reference your sales with raw material prices. In a project, that means a new quote, sometimes a new scoping phase.
A product evolves along its roadmap, fed by requests from all its customers. You benefit from improvements you did not fund alone, and that you might not have thought to ask for.
Knowledge of your trade, which leaves with the consultant
At an IT consultancy, the consultant who understood your pricing logic moves to another assignment once the project is delivered: that is how a time-and-materials model normally works. At a small agency or with a freelancer, everything often rests on one or two people. Technical documentation sometimes exists. Understanding of your trade rarely does.
The prototype that never reaches production
The 2025 MIT report on AI in business, reported by Fortune, finds that the vast majority of generative AI pilots have no measurable effect on the accounts. It also notes that tools bought from specialist vendors succeed about two times out of three, and internal builds a third as often.
The study compares buying with building in-house, not IT consultancies with vendors, and its method has been questioned. Yet it points to the same cause we see in the field: a tool that does not adapt to how the company works ends up abandoned.
The real three-year cost of an AI project, maintenance included
The headline price of a project says almost nothing about what it will cost. Take an SME that wants a sales monitoring agent for three users. For the project, we use the most favourable assumptions: €15,000 of development, the bottom of an IT consultancy's range, and maintenance at 15% a year.
| Item | Bespoke project (consultancy or agency) | Specialist vendor subscription |
|---|---|---|
| Development and set-up | €15,000 | Included |
| Maintenance over 3 years | €6,750 | Included |
| Hosting and monitoring | Often billed separately | Included |
| Improvements | Quoted separately | Included in the roadmap |
| Time to first results | Several weeks of scoping | About a week at our customers |
| Total over 3 years, excluding improvements | €21,750 minimum | €16,092 |
The subscription total matches our public price: €149 excl. VAT per month, per agent and per user, that is €149 x 3 users x 36 months. Guides published by players in the sector put most AI agency projects between €20,000 and €100,000, well above our assumption.
In this low scenario, the gap stays moderate, and that is deliberate: we chose the figures most favourable to the project. The real difference is not in the total. It is in what each euro covers: on one side a frozen deliverable, on the other a tool maintained and improved for three years.
Why food industry specialisation matters more than technology
Technology is available everywhere. An IT consultancy, an agency and a vendor often use the same AI models. What sets them apart is what the tool knows about your trade before its first day.
A generalist has to learn that a drop in orders in July does not mean the same thing for an ice cream maker as for a charcuterie producer. That a year-end rebate is negotiated with the buying group, not the store. That a short use-by date changes how you follow up with a customer. That milk or pork prices move your margins from one month to the next. It learns this on your project, at your expense, then leaves with that knowledge.
A specialist vendor built this knowledge once and refines it with every new customer. The same goes for the sector's ERPs: a connector already proven at other companies, like our EURAGRO integration, plugs in within days, not weeks. You are not buying a skill to be trained, you are buying a skill already trained.
What a specialist vendor doesn't do: when an IT consultancy remains the right choice
Work that touches your whole information system. Changing ERP, redesigning flows between several sites, connecting to a group's tools: this is an IT consultancy's core business. An AI agent vendor is not meant to carry this kind of work.
A need no product covers. Computer vision on a packing line, a predictive model on sensor data: if no vendor addresses your case, bespoke is the only way. In that case, demand a written commitment to go into production and a maintenance contract priced from the start.
An in-house team able to take over the tool. If your IT department can maintain the code after delivery, the main risk of a project, abandonment, drops considerably.
A vendor's limits, ours included. A specialist vendor covers what its product covers, no more. With us, traceability remains the ERP's domain, and production planning is not yet available.
Choosing an AI vendor: 6 questions to ask before signing
Whatever the model, these six questions sort things out in one meeting.
- How many companies in my sector use what you are offering me, today, in production?
- Who maintains the tool when my ERP changes version, and how much does it cost per year?
- Are the improvements I will ask for in a year included or quoted separately?
- What happens if the person who built the tool leaves your company?
- Who owns my data and the code, and how do I get them back if I stop?
- How long between signing and the first result my teams can use?
A serious provider, whether consultancy, agency or vendor, answers these six questions in writing. If it hesitates on the second or third, you know what the rest will cost.
Frequently asked questions about choosing an AI vendor
How much does an AI project cost for an SME?
The figures published by players in the sector range from a few thousand euros for a freelancer to several tens of thousands for an AI agency, and more for an IT consultancy. Maintenance comes on top, commonly 15 to 20% of the development cost each year. A subscription to a specialist vendor is counted in hundreds of euros per month, maintenance included. At Agrolytics: €149 excl. VAT per month, per agent and per user.
IT consultancy or AI agency: which should you choose?
An IT consultancy brings a solid structure, contractual guarantees and the ability to work across your whole information system. An AI agency brings sharper technical expertise, often faster. Both sell a project, and neither is usually specialised in the food industry. If a product already covers your need, compare them with a specialist vendor in your sector too.
Who owns a tool developed by an IT consultancy?
It depends on the contract. The transfer of rights to the code is not automatic: in France, it must be set out in writing. Also check that you receive the documentation and access to the technical environments, otherwise ownership remains theoretical. With a vendor, you do not own the software, but your data remains yours and must be exportable at any time.
Can an AI assessment be funded?
In France, yes. Bpifrance's Diagnostic Data IA is aimed at SMEs with 10 or more employees and at least €1 million in turnover. According to the scheme's listing updated in August 2026, the service costs €10,000 excl. VAT, 40% funded, leaving €6,000 excl. VAT to pay. Check the current rate with Bpifrance before applying.
How long does it take to set up an AI agent?
A bespoke project starts with several weeks of scoping before the first deliveries, then a testing phase. A product already in service plugs into your ERP in a few days. At a €12 million charcuterie producer using our sales agent, set-up took one week, and the agent worked on the company's real data from the start.
Going further
To compare the solutions themselves, criterion by criterion with prices shown, read our comparison of AI agents for the food industry. To see what an agent actually does in an SME in the sector, start with our guide to AI agents in the food industry.
Already have a quote from an IT consultancy or agency on the table? Book 30 minutes: we go through it with you, with no commitment, and look at what an agent already in service would do with your own data.
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