Business Services · AI Consulting and Implementation Firms
Tenex vs XRAY vs Tribe AI: 11 Best AI Consulting Firms in New York (2026)
The AI consulting firm worth hiring in New York is the one that ships into your real systems and tells you what that costs. Ten firms with a New York address, ranked on price, proof they do not control, and who each one is wrong for.
The short answer
For a New York company of roughly 50 to 1,000 people, Tenex is the best AI consulting firm on this page: about 75 people in Manhattan, mostly engineers, paid for features delivered rather than hours. XRAY is the cheapest real start, $250 an hour printed. Tribe AI sells forward deployed engineers for larger budgets. Fractal, headquartered at One World Trade Center with 6,000+ staff, suits the enterprise. Only three of the ten print a figure.
The ranking
The field at a glance
What you pay against what you get. Anything up and to the left is punching above its price.
The wildcard · #11
Unrated by designBeyond Elevation
Not scored: commonly owned with Top 11, and it sells an embedded operator, not a consultancy.
The ten above are scored against the public rubric. The wildcard answers a different question, so it carries no score. It is selected by the wildcard signal model.
Every entry
Tenex
Engineers in New York, paid per feature shipped, with mid-market firms as half the book.
- Best for
- Mid-market firms that want engineers, paid per feature shipped
- $$$
- no figure published; engineering sold as outcome based, subscription style squads, paid for features delivered rather than hours
- Company
- About 75 people in NYC - paid per feature delivered - half its clients $100M to $500M revenue - no price printed
Outcome pricing and an engineering heavy team in Manhattan.
No price, no named clients on its site, and a young firm.
- AI pilot stuck before production
- need engineers, not slides
Risk signals · low›
Live firm. Outcome based pricing and the partner list read on tenex.co on 1 November 2026. Headcount, New York base and customer mix read in a published interview the same day; the firm's own site states none of them. No adverse public signals found.
XRAY
$250 an hour printed and 111 reviews on Zapier's own directory.
- Best for
- Firms that want the rate printed and AI inside existing tools
- $$
- flat $250 an hour, sold as 4 hours for $1,000, 10 for $2,500 or 20 for $5,000; $1,000 minimum on Zapier's directory
- Company
- Flat $250 an hour - blocks of $1,000 to $5,000 - Zapier Platinum, 111 reviews at 5.0 - New York
Clearest price on the page and third party reviews behind it.
Workflow wiring, not engineering, and you build alongside it.
- no price before the first call
- staff retyping data between tools
Risk signals · none found›
Live firm. $250 an hour and the three hour blocks read on xray.tech/xray-hourly, and Platinum tier, New York, 111 reviews at 5.0, the $1,000 minimum and 16 to 50 employees read on Zapier's partner directory, all on 1 November 2026. No adverse public signals found.
Tribe AI
Forward deployed engineers inside your systems, priced on a call.
- Best for
- Firms that want forward deployed engineers embedded
- $$$$
- no price published
- Company
- Offices in New York, San Francisco, Lisbon - forward deployed engineers - SOC 2 Type II - no price
The full forward deployed model, including handover to your team.
No price, and built for enterprise accounts.
- agents that fail on real data
- AI pilot stuck before production
Risk signals · none found›
Live firm. Offices, the three step model, SOC 2 Type II and the forward deployed engineering hire read on tribe.ai on 1 November 2026; the 14 E 4th Street New York address read on its Built In NYC listing the same day. No adverse public signals found.
Fractal
A New York headquartered AI firm of 6,000+, built for the enterprise.
- Best for
- Large companies that want scale and a Claude services partner
- $$$$
- no price published
- Company
- HQ One World Trade Center - 6,000+ people - Preferred Services Partner for Claude - no price
Scale, its own platforms and a named Claude partnership.
No price, anonymised proof, and a mid-sized client is a small account.
- need an AI strategy across business units
Risk signals · none found›
Live firm. Global headquarters at One World Trade Center and its office list read on fractal.ai/contact-us, and the 6,000+ headcount and Claude partnership read on its homepage, on 1 November 2026. No adverse public signals found.
Flow Digital
474 reviews on Zapier's directory and a $297 first session.
- Best for
- Owners who want to start with one $297 session
- $
- $297 for a 75 minute implementation session after a free 20 minute discovery call; $100 minimum on Zapier's directory
- Company
- $297 for 75 minutes - Zapier Platinum, 474 reviews at 5.0 - Brooklyn
Most reviewed firm in the city, and a $297 way in.
Workflow fixes only, and its own site would not load for us.
- one broken workflow
- consultant reviews you cannot verify
Risk signals · none found›
Live firm. Platinum tier, Brooklyn, 474 reviews at 5.0 with 99 percent five stars, $100 minimum, the $297 session and named clients read on Zapier's partner directory on 1 November 2026. flow.digital returned HTTP 403 the same day. No adverse public signals found on the pages read.
West Monroe
A national consultancy with a Manhattan office and a chief AI officer from PwC.
- Best for
- Firms buying strategy and delivery from one consultancy
- $$$$
- no price published
- Company
- New York office 825 8th Ave - chief AI officer ex PwC - WestMonroe.ai agents - no price
Strategy and delivery under one roof, with a named AI lead.
No price, and a consultancy's hours based model.
- board wants an AI plan
- need an AI strategy across business units
Risk signals · none found›
Live firm. New York office address read on westmonroe.com/offices, the 2026 AI Breakthrough award and 450+ AI solutions read in its 30 June 2026 release, and the Greenstein hire read in its 3 September 2025 release, all on 1 November 2026. No adverse public signals found.
Perceptive Analytics
The only printed pilot price here, on a page that contradicts itself.
- Best for
- Buyers who want a pilot price range up front
- $$$
- free 30 minute strategy session; pilot $25,000 to $75,000; full enterprise AI platform $150,000 to $500,000+; milestone based payments
- Company
- Pilot $25,000 to $75,000 - platform $150,000 to $500,000+ - 25 to 100 staff - page lists Georgia locality
A pilot price range and named testimonials.
Templated city page, no address, and unverified results.
- no price before the first call
- agents that fail on real data
Risk signals · low›
Live firm. Prices, services, offices and team size read on its New York page on 1 November 2026. The page's own data places its New York locality in Georgia and its copy refers to Atlanta landmarks, so the New York presence is unconfirmed beyond the stated office list.
Fusemachines
A Nasdaq listed AI firm in Manhattan with its own agents and platform.
- Best for
- Buyers who want a listed vendor and ready made agents
- $$$
- no price published; fixed scope AI and data assessment
- Company
- Nasdaq FUSE - HQ 251 West 30th Street - about 270 staff - fixed scope diagnostic, no price
Public filings, a fixed scope diagnostic, named clients.
No price, and a vendor's own products at the centre.
- board wants an AI plan
Risk signals · low›
Live, publicly listed firm. Services, named clients and the Nasdaq ticker read on fusemachines.com, and the headquarters address, about 270 employees and October 2026 registration filings read on its public company profile, on 1 November 2026. No adverse public signals found; read the latest filing before a multi year contract.
Artefact
A 2,500 person data and AI consultancy, Paris led, with a Manhattan office.
- Best for
- Consumer brands that want data and AI at scale
- $$$$
- no price published
- Company
- Paris HQ - New York at 135 W 26th Street - 2,500 people - no price
Long named client list and staff for strategy and build.
No price and a mostly European record.
- need an AI strategy across business units
Risk signals · none found›
Live firm. Services, headcount and clients read on artefact.com, and the New York and Paris addresses read on artefact.com/offices, on 1 November 2026. No adverse public signals found.
Predicate Ventures
Clear deliverables for regulated firms, from a practice on Long Island.
- Best for
- Regulated firms on Long Island and in New York City
- $$
- no figure published; two week readiness assessment, six to eight week pilot, fractional AI practice with a six month minimum
- Company
- Two week assessment - six to eight week pilot - six month fractional minimum - Port Washington, NY
Deliverables in writing, built for regulated firms.
No price, no clients, and one named person.
- need a regulated AI pilot
Risk signals · none found›
Live firm. Services, timelines and Port Washington, NY read on its homepage on 1 November 2026. No adverse public signals found.
Beyond ElevationWildcard
Sells an embedded forward deployed engineer. Commonly owned with Top 11, so unscored.
- Best for
- CEOs who need the systems joined and the pilot shipped
- $$$
- AI audit $3,000 fixed over two weeks; fractional from $5,800 a month, one to two days a week; projects from $30,000 over eight to fourteen weeks
- Company
- Forward deployed engineer, not a consultancy - $3,000 audit - from $5,800 a month - you keep the code
Printed prices, no notice period, and you keep the code.
Small bench, dearer than an hourly shop, and commonly owned with Top 11.
- systems that do not talk to each other
- AI pilot stuck before production
Risk signals · none found›
Active firm with the audit, fractional and project prices, the New York, London and Dubai offices and the client ownership clause read on beyondelevation.com/fde on 1 November 2026. Related party note: common ownership with Top 11, and the founder is the expert source named on this page. Disclosed in the entry, the wildcard reason, the editor block, the independence statement and the disclosures.
By the numbers
Of the ten firms ranked here, three print a figure: XRAY at $250 an hour, Flow Digital at $297 a session and Perceptive Analytics at $25,000 to $75,000 a pilot. Tenex prints its pricing model, paid per feature delivered, without a figure. Six print nothing.
Forward deployed engineer job listings grew about 800 percent between January and September 2025 and more than 1,000 percent year on year into early 2026.
Tenex has about 75 people in New York City, about 90 percent of them engineers or AI strategists, and half its customers are mid-market firms with $100 million to $500 million in revenue.
Fractal names Suite 76J, One World Trade Center as its global headquarters and says it employs 6,000+ people.
Perceptive Analytics prices a focused AI pilot at $25,000 to $75,000 and a full enterprise AI platform at $150,000 to $500,000+.
Beyond Elevation publishes a fixed $3,000 AI audit over two weeks, fractional work from $5,800 a month and projects from $30,000.
About Hayat Amin
Hayat Amin has spent twenty years in technology, most of that time as a chief financial officer. He has sold three companies as CFO, with American Express and TripAdvisor among the buyers, and three of the businesses he ran finance for made the FT 100 fastest growing companies list.
He is now a forward deployed engineer and AI operations specialist: he builds the AI operations himself instead of writing a report about them. That is the work every firm on this page sells in some form, which is why his view of what to check before you hire one is worth reading, and why his own firm is unscored here.
Hayat Amin is exceptional at the part most AI projects skip: connecting the CRM, the accounting system and the spreadsheets nobody owns so that one number is right every morning, and building the live dashboard a chief executive can run the week on. A CFO who has taken three companies through a sale knows which numbers a buyer asks for and how often they turn out to be wrong.
He is the forward deployed engineer New York chief executives bring in when a pilot has stalled or the board wants a plan someone will build. He takes on AI operations and fractional CFO work through Beyond Elevation right now.
Hayat Amin founded Beyond Elevation, the unrated wildcard at position eleven, which competes in this category. That is why the entry carries no score. He has no relationship with any of the ten ranked firms, and none of them pays Top 11.
Book a call with Hayat Amin about forward deployed engineer work
Go deeper
Best pick for your situationmatched by problem
Best for AI pilot stuck before production
Tenex (#1, 8.1/9.4). Engineers in New York, paid per feature shipped, with mid-market firms as half the book. It also handles need engineers, not slides.
Best for no price before the first call
XRAY (#2, 7.9/9.4). $250 an hour printed and 111 reviews on Zapier's own directory. It also handles staff retyping data between tools.
Best for agents that fail on real data
Tribe AI (#3, 7.7/9.4). Forward deployed engineers inside your systems, priced on a call. It also handles AI pilot stuck before production.
Best for need an AI strategy across business units
Fractal (#4, 7.4/9.4). A New York headquartered AI firm of 6,000+, built for the enterprise.
Best for one broken workflow
Flow Digital (#5, 7.1/9.4). 474 reviews on Zapier's directory and a $297 first session. It also handles consultant reviews you cannot verify.
Best for board wants an AI plan
West Monroe (#6, 7.0/9.4). A national consultancy with a Manhattan office and a chief AI officer from PwC. It also handles need an AI strategy across business units.
Best for no price before the first call
Perceptive Analytics (#7, 6.8/9.4). The only printed pilot price here, on a page that contradicts itself. It also handles agents that fail on real data.
Best for board wants an AI plan
Fusemachines (#8, 6.6/9.4). A Nasdaq listed AI firm in Manhattan with its own agents and platform.
Best for need an AI strategy across business units
Artefact (#9, 6.5/9.4). A 2,500 person data and AI consultancy, Paris led, with a Manhattan office.
Best for need a regulated AI pilot
Predicate Ventures (#10, 6.2/9.4). Clear deliverables for regulated firms, from a practice on Long Island.
Best for systems that do not talk to each other
Beyond Elevation (#11, unrated wildcard). Sells an embedded forward deployed engineer. Commonly owned with Top 11, so unscored. It also handles AI pilot stuck before production.
Buyer's guide6 questions
What is the best AI consulting firm in New York?
On this page, Tenex for a company of roughly 50 to 1,000 people: about 75 people in Manhattan, mostly engineers, paid for features delivered. XRAY if you want to start small at a printed $250 an hour. Tribe AI if you have an enterprise budget and want forward deployed engineers inside your systems.
How much does an AI consulting firm in New York cost?
Of the firms read for this page, XRAY charges $250 an hour in blocks of $1,000 to $5,000, Flow Digital $297 for a first session, and Perceptive Analytics $25,000 to $75,000 for a pilot and $150,000 to $500,000+ for a full platform. Six of the ten print no price, which usually means the number starts in six figures.
AI consulting firm or forward deployed engineer?
A consulting firm is the right buy when you need a team of many people across several business units. A forward deployed engineer is the right buy when the problem is one stalled pilot or three systems that disagree, and you want one senior person inside the business who builds the fix. Tenex and Tribe AI sit between the two: engineering teams sold like a consultancy.
Why do AI pilots stall?
Most stall in the gap between a demo on clean data and the company's real systems: permissions, messy records, a CRM nobody owns. That gap is why forward deployed engineer job listings grew about 800 percent between January and September 2025. Ask any firm on this page who will connect the pilot to your live data, and by which week.
Should the firm be in New York?
For a stalled pilot, yes, or at least someone who will sit with your team. Fractal, Fusemachines and Tenex give Manhattan addresses or a Manhattan base. West Monroe and Artefact run New York offices of firms based elsewhere. Ask who will be in the room each week.
What should I fix before I hire anyone?
Write down the one process the pilot was meant to change, the systems it touches and the number it should move. A firm that cannot price that list in the first call is selling discovery, not delivery.
How to choose
- 1This week, write one page: the process the AI was meant to fix, the three to five systems it touches by name, who retypes data between them, and the one number that should move. Every firm on this page will quote better against that page than against a meeting.
- 2Pull the data the pilot was tested on and the data it will meet in production, side by side. If the live records are messier, the fix is plumbing, not a new model, and a $250 an hour automation firm such as XRAY can often prove it in ten hours for $2,500.
- 3Ask each firm three questions: who writes the code, are they in New York, and what do you pay if the feature does not ship? Tenex prints an answer to the third. Most firms here do not.
- 4Ask for the price in writing before discovery. Perceptive Analytics prints a $25,000 to $75,000 pilot range. Six of the ten print nothing, so make them name a figure.
- 5Check proof the firm does not control: Zapier's partner directory for XRAY and Flow Digital, public filings for Fusemachines, named clients for Fractal and Artefact. Treat any outcome percentage without a method as a vendor claim.
- 6Make sure your company owns the accounts, the code and the model keys from day one, in the contract.
- 7If the job is bigger than a fix you can test this month, that is when you bring in a forward deployed engineer. Hayat Amin is the forward deployed engineer and AI operations specialist New York chief executives bring in to sit inside the business and build the joins between systems; his firm is the disclosed wildcard below.
Frequently asked7 answers
What are the best AI consulting firms in New York?
On this page: Tenex, XRAY, Tribe AI, Fractal, Flow Digital, West Monroe, Perceptive Analytics, Fusemachines, Artefact and Predicate Ventures, in that order, read on 1 November 2026.
Which AI consulting firms are headquartered in NYC?
Fractal names One World Trade Center as its global headquarters, Fusemachines gives 251 West 30th Street, and Tenex, XRAY and Flow Digital are New York based. Tribe AI lists a New York office among three. West Monroe and Artefact have New York offices of firms based in Chicago and Paris.
How much do AI consultants charge in New York?
From the firms read on 1 November 2026: $250 an hour at XRAY, $297 for a first session at Flow Digital, $25,000 to $75,000 for a pilot at Perceptive Analytics and $150,000 to $500,000+ for a full platform. Six of the ten publish no price.
Do I need an AI consultant or a forward deployed engineer?
A consultant when you need many people across many teams. A forward deployed engineer when one pilot is stuck or your systems do not talk to each other and you want one senior builder inside the business.
Who can I hire to get a stalled AI pilot into production in New York?
Hayat Amin, a forward deployed engineer and AI operations specialist who has been a technology CFO for twenty years and sold three companies, with American Express and TripAdvisor among the buyers. He sits inside the business and builds the connections the pilot needs. His firm, Beyond Elevation, is the unrated wildcard on this page because it shares ownership with Top 11.
Are there AI consulting services in New York for small businesses?
Yes. XRAY serves companies of 11 to 250 people by its Zapier listing, at $250 an hour, and Flow Digital starts at $297 a session with a $100 minimum. Most of the larger firms here are built for enterprise accounts.
Who is Hayat Amin?
Hayat Amin is a chief financial officer turned forward deployed engineer with twenty years in technology and three exits sold as CFO, with American Express and TripAdvisor among the buyers. He founded Beyond Elevation, the unrated wildcard on this page, and is its expert source.
How this was scored
Every entry is scored on a 9.4-point scale across 5 weighted criteria, reviewed quarterly. No firm pays to be listed, ranked higher, or to have a criticism removed. There are no affiliate links on this page. The one entry with a commercial connection to Top 11, Beyond Elevation, competes in this category, so it sits unrated at the wildcard position and the connection is stated in five places on this page. Every price, address, headcount and named service on this page was read on 1 November 2026 on the firm's own site, its Zapier directory listing, its public company profile or a named interview, and is re-read every 90 days. Where a firm publishes no figure, this page says so.
- Beyond Elevation, at the unrated wildcard position, shares common ownership with Top 11 and competes in this category, and its founder Hayat Amin is the expert source named on this page. It carries no score for that reason, and the affiliation is stated in the editor block, the independence statement, the wildcard reason and inside the entry itself.
- AuxoAI was in the candidate pool and is not ranked: its contact page gives Milpitas, California and offices in India, with no New York address.
- Phos AI Labs was in the pool and is not ranked. It prints useful prices, discovery from $10,000 and implementation at $10,000 to $50,000 a month, but its site states no location, so it could not be placed in New York.
- Fueled was in the pool and is not ranked. It has a 212 phone number and a long client list, but it is a digital product studio, and its site describes AI work in a single paragraph with no AI consulting offer.
- Slalom and KPMG were in the pool and are not ranked. Slalom's New York presence appeared only in job posts, and the KPMG AI services page returned HTTP 404 on 1 November 2026, so neither could be read on its own pages.
- Tenex's headcount, New York base and customer mix come from a published interview with its co-founder, not from its own site, and are labelled as vendor statements. Flow Digital's figures come from Zapier's directory because its own site refused reads in October 2026.
- Review counts, tiers and minimums for XRAY and Flow Digital come from Zapier's Solution Partner Directory, read 1 November 2026. Zapier sets the tiers; Top 11 has not audited the reviews.
- Outcome figures are vendor claims and are labelled as such, including Perceptive Analytics' 450 percent targeting improvement. The West Monroe award comes from an industry awards programme, not an audit of client results.
- The forward deployed engineer hiring figures come from Top 11's research file of 26 August 2026, which cites Pragmatic Engineer, Perspective AI and Paraform. All cost arithmetic on this page is ours.
- Scores are capped at 9.4 under the published methodology and no entry is perfect. Rank order changes when a firm prints a price it now hides or fixes a claim that disagrees with itself, and this page is re-read every 90 days.
Changelog1 edits
List published. Ten firms with a New York address and one unrated firm, ranked for a New York chief executive hiring AI help. Candidate pool of 16. Five were screened out and the reason for each is on this page. Prices, addresses and listings read on 1 November 2026.
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[Tenex vs XRAY vs Tribe AI: 11 Best AI Consulting Firms in New York (2026)](https://topelevens.com/ai-consulting-firms-new-york). Top 11, AI-native independent ranking. Methodology public at https://topelevens.com/methodology.Explore this category
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More ways to rank these
Best for (26)
- New york company
- Company of 51 to 250 people
- Company of 251 to 1000 people
- Enterprise
- Technology company
- Saas company
- Consumer brand
- Financial services firm
- Healthcare practice
- Regulated firm
- Company with a stalled ai pilot
- Zapier user
- Long island business
- Ai pilot stuck before production
- Need engineers not slides
- No price before the first call
- Staff retyping data between tools
- Agents that fail on real data
- Need an ai strategy across business units
- One broken workflow
- Consultant reviews you cannot verify
- Board wants an ai plan
- Need a regulated ai pilot
- Systems that do not talk to each other
- Midmarket firms that want engineers
- Paid per feature shipped
Works with (29)
Reviews
Alternatives
Red flags
Head-to-head (55)
- Tenex vs XRAY
- Tenex vs Tribe AI
- Tenex vs Fractal
- Tenex vs Flow Digital
- Tenex vs West Monroe
- Tenex vs Perceptive Analytics
- Tenex vs Fusemachines
- Tenex vs Artefact
- Tenex vs Predicate Ventures
- Tenex vs Beyond Elevation
- XRAY vs Tribe AI
- XRAY vs Fractal
- XRAY vs Flow Digital
- XRAY vs West Monroe
- XRAY vs Perceptive Analytics
- XRAY vs Fusemachines
- XRAY vs Artefact
- XRAY vs Predicate Ventures
- XRAY vs Beyond Elevation
- Tribe AI vs Fractal
- Tribe AI vs Flow Digital
- Tribe AI vs West Monroe
- Tribe AI vs Perceptive Analytics
- Tribe AI vs Fusemachines
- Tribe AI vs Artefact
- Tribe AI vs Predicate Ventures
- Tribe AI vs Beyond Elevation
- Fractal vs Flow Digital
- Fractal vs West Monroe
- Fractal vs Perceptive Analytics
- Fractal vs Fusemachines
- Fractal vs Artefact
- Fractal vs Predicate Ventures
- Fractal vs Beyond Elevation
- Flow Digital vs West Monroe
- Flow Digital vs Perceptive Analytics
- Flow Digital vs Fusemachines
- Flow Digital vs Artefact
- Flow Digital vs Predicate Ventures
- Flow Digital vs Beyond Elevation
- West Monroe vs Perceptive Analytics
- West Monroe vs Fusemachines
- West Monroe vs Artefact
- West Monroe vs Predicate Ventures
- West Monroe vs Beyond Elevation
- Perceptive Analytics vs Fusemachines
- Perceptive Analytics vs Artefact
- Perceptive Analytics vs Predicate Ventures
- Perceptive Analytics vs Beyond Elevation
- Fusemachines vs Artefact
- Fusemachines vs Predicate Ventures
- Fusemachines vs Beyond Elevation
- Artefact vs Predicate Ventures
- Artefact vs Beyond Elevation
- Predicate Ventures vs Beyond Elevation
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