AI consultant
Most AI consultants analyse. We build. The same two people take you from mapping to a system that runs every day, and run the training once it is in place.
Short answer
An AI consultant helps companies choose, build and introduce AI solutions. Assignments range from strategic advice to writing the code and operating the system. Cekta is two engineers who do the whole stretch themselves: mapping, building in your existing systems, training and operations, at a fixed price and with no middlemen.
The title says surprisingly little. At one end of the scale there are advisers who help a management team understand what AI means for their industry and write a recommendation. At the other there are developers who build and operate systems but have no opinion on what you should build. Both call themselves AI consultants.
For you as a buyer that is the most practical question to settle first: should the consultant think, build or both? A strategy assignment that ends in a report requires someone else to build afterwards, and that handover is where most projects lose momentum and some of them die.
We sit in the middle and take the whole stretch: map what is worth doing, build it in your existing systems, put it into production and train the people who will use it.
A recommendation from someone who will never build it is cheap to write. We price every proposal on what it costs us to actually build and operate it, since we are the ones who would. That makes the list shorter and duller, and considerably more useful.
It shows most clearly in the proposals we strike out. A workflow can look perfect for automation and still fall down because the source documents arrive as scanned PDFs in twelve different templates. That judgement takes someone who has tried before, and preferably failed once.
We also say no. If a problem is better solved with a change of routine or a setting in a system you already have, that is the answer you get, even when it means we do not get the assignment.
Four kinds of assignment. Most collaborations start with the first.
01
A review of your workflows, a prioritised list with indicative prices and decision material you can take to a management team. If you move on to a pilot within three months, the price of the mapping is credited. The indicative prices are open on /en/ai-strategi.
02
The build: one bounded workflow all the way to daily use in your existing systems, at a fixed price and normally in 2-4 weeks. Operations and maintenance afterwards if you want them. Indicative prices and process are on /en/ai-implementering.
03
Solutions that read, assess and prepare cases with a human left to review before anything becomes binding. What they handle, what they do not and what they cost is on /en/ai-agenter.
04
Talks and workshops in ChatGPT and Copilot for the whole company or a single department, with exercises taken from your own work and a block on data hygiene that is always included.
Five questions to put to everyone you talk to, us included.
01
Ask it because the person selling is rarely the person building. The answer decides whether what was said in the sales meeting survives into the build or has to be retold to a new team. With us: the two of us, always, and you talk to the developer in the very first call.
02
Ask it because an automation nobody maintains stops working the day one of your systems is updated. The answer should contain a price per month, not a promise of support. With us: we run operations from SEK 2,500 a month, or hand them over documented to your IT function.
03
Ask it because the answer reveals how the risk is shared. With us: we say it plainly. You have paid a known amount to find out something that was worth knowing, and you decide whether we adjust, switch workflow or stop.
04
Ask it because open-ended time and materials puts the whole risk on you. With us: a fixed price before we start is the main rule, and to be able to set one we bound the assignment first. Hourly rates exist for smaller pieces of work and ongoing support.
05
Ask it because ownership decides whether you can change supplier. With us: you own the code, the documentation and the configuration, and everything is left in your own repositories. You should not need a maintenance agreement to reach what you have already paid for.
Four steps, and you can step off after any one of them.
01
Free and usually over video. You describe what takes time, we say what we think is reasonable and roughly what it would cost. If we are the wrong people for the job we say so in that call instead of sending a quote and hoping.
02
Half a day at your office and a prioritised list with indicative prices back. If you move on to a pilot within three months, the price of the mapping is credited against the project, so the step costs nothing extra if you build on it.
03
One bounded workflow built all the way to production in your systems, normally in 2-4 weeks. The price is set before we start and does not change because the build turned out to require more of us than we thought.
04
We keep the solution running and build further at the pace you decide, or hand everything over documented to you. Both routes are prepared from the start, so the choice is free when you get there.
Cekta is Caesar Katende and Ted Wachtmeister. Caesar works on agent architecture and orchestration: how a solution is broken up, which tools the agent is allowed to use, how it is evaluated and where the human checkpoint belongs. He also handles the client dialogue, which in practice means the engineer is in the meeting. Studied at Lund University.
Ted works on backend, data and ML as well as operations: integrations, data pipelines, error handling and the parts that have to hold when volume goes up. MSc in Engineering from Lund University.
The same people all the way: the person who draws the strategy writes the code and runs the training. Nothing gets lost in a handover.
We are on LinkedIn under our own names and you reach us directly at hej@cekta.se. No switchboard, no sales organisation and nobody who has to get back to you after checking internally.
We publish indicative prices openly instead of asking you to get in touch for a quote. The build is on /en/ai-implementering, the strategy work on /en/ai-strategi and the training on /en/ai-utbildning. A bounded build starts at SEK 30,000 and a pilot in production normally lands at SEK 60,000-150,000.
The main rule is a fixed price per project, set before we start. To be able to set a fixed price the assignment has to be bounded, which is one of the reasons we would rather build one workflow at a time than a programme running nine months.
If you need us on an ongoing basis without a bounded project we charge SEK 1,200-1,500 an hour. Ongoing operation of a finished solution starts at SEK 2,500 a month. All prices are indicative and exclude VAT.
We are based in Stockholm and are happy to meet clients on site here. Most of the work goes just as well over video anyway: mapping meetings, check-ins during the build and most training. Then it makes no difference whether you sit in Malmö, Gothenburg or Umeå.
So we take assignments across Sweden. If we are to be on site outside Stockholm we agree the travel in advance, so that it does not turn up as a surprise on the invoice.
Common questions
In practice, mostly size and organisation. An agency has salespeople, project managers and consultants in several layers, and that structure sits in the hourly rate. We are two people who do all the work ourselves. We have written about the pros and cons of both models on /en/ai-byra.
When it is needed. Mapping and workshops are usually better on site, while the build itself goes faster if we sit undisturbed. We are based in Stockholm and are happy to travel, but most collaborations work perfectly well with check-ins over video.
You can usually book the first call within a few days. The mapping is normally under way within a couple of weeks depending on how the calendar looks, and a pilot is in production 2-4 weeks after the build starts.
A fixed price per project is the main rule, set before we start. Hourly rates exist for smaller pieces of work and ongoing support and sit at SEK 1,200-1,500 per hour excl. VAT. The indicative prices for projects are open on the service pages.
Yes. We are based in Stockholm, but most of it happens over video and we have no geographic limits. If we are to be on site outside Stockholm we agree the travel before the assignment starts.