BI Consultants: What to Sell When Clients Think AI Replaces Dashboards
Clients think AI replaces dashboards. Here is what BI consultants can sell them next, and get paid for it for 3 years.
Your clients think AI can replace their dashboards, and the BI work you billed for is getting harder to sell. Bring them the answer to the question they are really asking: what did all this spend return? SQOR.ai answers business questions in plain English, matched to the books, at about 5 to 10% of a typical data and reporting budget, and pays the consultant who brings it 20% to 30% for 3 years as a partner.
Why clients are questioning BI spend
The dashboard license is the smallest number on a BI bill. The warehouse, the pipelines, the outside consultants and the people who build reports cost far more, and the reports still answer only the questions someone thought to build.
When budgets tighten, the CFO asks what all of it returned, and a dashboard estate is hard to defend.
The services around those tools feel it as well. Forrester’s analysis, reported by Channel Insider, warns that AI makes some technology services faster and cheaper to deliver, and that customers then expect to pay less for them.
What to do next
- Add up the client’s real cost: licenses, warehouse, pipelines, consultants, and the people who build and check reports.
- Show what changes. In SQOR.ai’s illustrative table, a company with $25 million to $250 million in revenue spends $0.8 million to $2.3 million a year on data and reporting, and $0.7 million to $2.2 million of it returns to EBITDA.
- Run SQOR.ai beside the current tools in a Proof of Value, on 1 use case and the client’s own data.
- Let the client retire tools when they are ready, and stay in as the partner who led it.
Where SQOR.ai fits
SQOR.ai does the work a dashboard estate needs people for. It connects read-only, computes every measure, explains what moved it and recommends the next move.
See how it compares with Tableau, Power BI, Qlik, Sigma and Domo.
How the SQOR Partner Program pays
- Refer, 10% once. Introduce a client and step away, and you earn 10% of the client’s first-year subscription.
- Partner, 20% for 3 years. Stay in as the client’s lead contact, work with our team, and grow the account, and you earn 20% of the Proof of Value and every subscription payment for 3 years.
- Premier Partner, 30%. From your 6th partner client each year, the rate is 30%, for 3 years.
SQOR.ai engagements run $50K to $900K a year, and your share grows as the client adds teams, locations and use cases. Clients pay SQOR.ai’s list price, and anything you do for them beyond it is yours to price.
Sources and further reading
- Channel Insider, on Forrester’s analysis, Forrester: AI disruption puts technology services at risk, 2026
Questions answered
Frequently asked questions
My clients think AI replaces their dashboards. What do I sell them?
Sell them what AI alone can't give: answers in plain English, matched to the books. Run SQOR.ai beside their current tools. Stay in as their partner and earn 20% of the Proof of Value and every subscription payment for 3 years, or 30% from your 6th partner client each year.
How do I help a client cut BI costs without losing the account?
Lead the change yourself. Run SQOR.ai beside the client's current tools, retire licenses when the client is ready, and stay in as the partner of record. You earn 20% to 30% of the Proof of Value and every subscription payment for 3 years, and you keep billing for your own work.
How much do companies spend on BI and reporting?
In SQOR.ai's illustrative table, $0.8 million to $2.3 million a year for a company with $25 million to $250 million in revenue, rising to $9.1 million to $23.2 million a year at $1 billion to $2.5 billion. Staff are the largest part, at $180,000 fully loaded each.