Commissioned Research · Hong Kong
A commissioned study on how your peers, your competitors or your industry are actually using AI — every figure traced to its publisher and dated. Written by the person who read the sources. Delivered in the form the decision is taken in.
Who Commissions This
It usually arrives the same way. A board paper is due. A partner asks what everyone else is doing. A regulator publishes something with a deadline attached. And the honest internal answer is that nobody has the time to go and find out properly.
A paper is going to the board and it needs to stand on evidence, not on a view. What peers have actually deployed, what it measurably did, and what the sequence should be — in a document that survives being read closely.
A market you are entering, a technology you are being sold, or a competitor set you can only see from the outside. Desk research done properly, with the sources attached, so the conclusion can be argued with.
A partner has asked for developed-market know-how, and knowledge transfer is the return on the stake. A study you can hand over under your own name is worth more than a call you cannot forward.
A regulator has moved and the answer has to be written down. A control framework mapped clause by clause to the rules that actually apply to you — the kind of artefact a board can approve rather than note.
Your board meets next month. A research house would still be writing the proposal.
The Comparison
Nobody in this market publishes their rates, so most buyers price it by asking around. These are the figures the incumbents have published themselves — in government price schedules and in their own studies. Both columns matter, and the second one is usually the one that decides it.
Scroll the table sideways →
| The alternative | In USD | In HKD | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forrester — a commissioned thought-leadership programme1 | US$200,000 | ≈HK$1,560,000 | “A 14- to 16-week process”2 |
| Forrester — a commissioned case study with infographic3 | US$125,000 (2022 pricing) | ≈HK$975,000 | 14–16 weeks |
| Gartner — one AI Leaders research seat, per year4 | US$153,125 | ≈HK$1,194,000 | Annual subscription |
| Gartner — a single internal advisory session4 | US$25,105 | ≈HK$196,000 | Scheduled |
| Gartner Consulting — senior labour, per hour5 | US$452–528 | ≈HK$3,530–4,120 | Duration not published6 |
| A custom market-research project | US$25,000–65,0007 | ≈HK$195,000–507,000 | 6–12 weeks8 |
| Doing it in-house, across your own teams | Your people’s time | “Upward of six months”3 | |
| Before any of the above begins — running the procurement | — | 57 days, on average9 | |
| Metis AI Advisory — a commissioned study | ≈US$7,000 | From HK$55,000 | 2 to 4 weeks |
Figures are as published by the providers named, on the dates given in the source register, and are not quotations. Gartner and Forrester prices are US-dollar list or schedule rates and will differ by contract, region and negotiation. Figures marked ≈ are converted, not published, at HK$7.8 to US$1 — the peg sits in a 7.75–7.85 band, so treat conversions as order of magnitude rather than to the dollar. Metis AI Advisory is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a reseller for any provider named on this page.
The Honest Part
A tenth of the price should make you suspicious. It is a fair instinct, so here is the actual arithmetic rather than a claim about value.
No engagement manager, no research pool, no partner introduced at the readout. Every institution in the evidence base is read, sourced and written by one pair of hands — which is why nothing is diluted between the source and the page.
Much of what sits inside those published bands is the cost of coordinating a team rather than the cost of the research itself. This sits below them for two plain reasons: no team to coordinate, and no significant overhead behind it.
The risk is real and the structure contains it rather than arguing it away. Fees are fixed and phased, with half payable only on delivery. And the full source register transfers with the report — so what you hold at the end is not a document you have to trust, but an evidence base you can check.
Where a global firm is the better buy: a multi-country implementation programme, a regulatory opinion on a letterhead your supervisor accepts, or a name on the cover to settle an internal argument. If that is what the situation needs, buy that. This is built for a different job — establishing what is verifiably happening elsewhere, and what you should do about it.
A study is not measured by the size of the team. It is measured by the judgment, the sources behind it, and the discipline to always make clear which is which.
What You Get
Scope is agreed in writing before research begins, so what follows is the shape rather than a fixed menu. Most studies use four or five of these.
The institutions, competitors or markets in scope, agreed with you before a word is researched — so you are never handed a benchmark against a peer set you would not have chosen.
Peers banded by size on a consistent, dated and sourced basis. The first question anyone asks of a benchmark is whether these organisations are anything like us — the study should answer it on the page, not in the footnotes.
Where the leaders sit today, where you sit against them, and what separates the two. A spectrum rather than a score, because a score invites an argument about the scoring.
A control structure written clause by clause against the regulation that actually applies to you — data governance, model risk, explainability, human oversight, cybersecurity. The artefact a board can approve.
A maturity model and a use-case prioritisation matrix your own people complete. You get something genuinely applied to your operation without waiting on anyone's availability to be interviewed.
A board-ready deck in your own template, with the interactive page alongside it. A study nobody can circulate is a study nobody reads — the format is part of the deliverable, not an afterthought.
What sits outside it. This is a research and roadmap engagement. It establishes what you should do, in what order, and why. Implementing the systems it recommends is a separate and later exercise, which the roadmap is designed to prepare. Regulatory opinion — what a supervisor will permit — is a different competence and stays out, said plainly rather than quietly.
How It Works
Forty-five minutes with whoever will own this internally. What the question actually is, who reads the answer, which institutions count, and what would make it useless. Free, and not conditional on commissioning anything.
A short written confirmation — the evidence base, the deliverables, the date, the fixed fee. Nothing starts until you have agreed it, and nothing moves afterwards without re-confirming it in writing first.
AI run across a governed evidence base, every figure traced back to its publisher and validated by hand. The evidence base comes to you for factual review before drafting — your review of the facts, my independence on the judgment.
The deck, the page and the source register, followed by a call once you have read it. If it needs presenting — to your board, your investment committee, or a partner in another city — that is quoted separately and only if you want it.
Four weeks end to end, against a market norm of three to four months. That is not a stretch target and it is not corners being cut. It is the method the study describes, applied to the study itself — which for an AI advisory is rather the point.
The Number
A commissioned study
from HK$55,000
Most land between HK$55,000 and HK$150,000, depending on the size of the evidence base and how much of the framework and roadmap layer you want.
Approximately US$7,000 to US$19,000 at HK$7.8 to US$1.
Opens an email to christian@metisaihk.com, part-written so you only have to fill in three lines. Prefer a form? Request a consultation.
Why this is published at all — because in this market it is not, and a buyer with a board paper due should not have to run a procurement to find out the order of magnitude. The figure is a starting point for a scope call, not a quotation. What moves it is the size of the evidence base, whether the governance and roadmap layer is included, and whether anyone needs it presented in a room.
Straight Answers
Looking for the other half of the corporate offering? Commissioned research answers a question for your board. Corporate AI training changes what your team can do every week — on-site in Hong Kong or live online.
Corporate AI training →Sources
The same standard the studies are held to. All sources accessed 6 August 2026.
A note on method. Where a figure comes from a provider's own published document — a government price schedule, a filing, a study they commissioned about themselves — it is quoted directly and dated. Where a figure is an industry band rather than a rate card, it is labelled as indicative and given as a range. Prices change, schedules are superseded, and every number above should be checked against its source before you rely on it. That is the standard applied to the studies too.
The Next Move
Forty-five minutes, free, and not conditional on anything. If a subscription you already hold answers it, I'll say so.