DTC workflow automation measures:

• Hours recovered per week
• Support tickets deflected
• Email open/click rate improvement
• Ad creative production time reduction
• Revenue per customer lift

Result: Enterprise consulting optimizes for boardroom approval. DTC automation optimizes for P&L impact.

Real Scenarios (When Each Model Fits):

Scenario 1: $8M DTC apparel brand (25 employees)

Problem: Customer support inbox overwhelmed (400 tickets/day). Founder spends 15 hours/week triaging.

Enterprise AI consulting approach:

• Week 1-8: Interview stakeholders, map customer journey, assess AI readiness
• Deliverable: 60-slide deck recommending Zendesk + custom NLP model
• Next step: “Find engineering partner to build”
• Cost: $80K
• Time to working system: 9-12 months (if brand can find/afford engineers)

AI workflow automation approach:

• Week 1: Integrate GPT with Gorgias
• Week 2-3: Train AI on brand voice, product FAQs, return policies
• Week 4: Deploy to production (AI drafts responses, human approves)
• Week 6: Full auto-response for 60% of tickets
• Cost: $12K
• Time to results: 6 weeks
• ROI: 12 hours/week recovered = $30K/year in founder time

Winner for DTC: Workflow automation. Enterprise consulting wastes capital on recommendations the brand can’t execute.

Scenario 2: $50M multi-brand DTC conglomerate (150 employees)

Problem: Three acquired brands, siloed data, no unified AI strategy. CEO wants enterprise-wide AI transformation.

Enterprise AI consulting approach:

• Month 1-3: Assess data infrastructure, interview execs from all brands
• Month 4-6: Design unified AI architecture, vendor selection framework
• Month 7-9: Pilot AI in one brand (forecasting + customer segmentation)
• Deliverable: Roadmap for IT team to execute rollout
• Cost: $400K
• Value: Organizational alignment, avoids fragmented AI investments

AI workflow automation approach:

• Would struggle. Multi-brand, multi-team coordination exceeds workflow automation scope.
• Could handle individual brand workflows (support, marketing) but not enterprise integration.

Winner for this use case: Enterprise consulting. The problem is strategic alignment, not tactical execution.

Hybrid Model (Emerging for Mid-Market DTC):

Some vendors now offer “consulting + execution” for $30K-$75K:

Week 1-4: Strategy + workflow design (consulting)

Week 5-12: Build + deploy automation (execution)

Best of both: strategic thinking + working systems

Ideal for: $10M-$50M DTC brands planning multi-year AI investment but needing quick wins.

Cost Comparison (12-Month View):

Enterprise AI Consulting:

Strategy phase: $150K-$300K

Pilot: $100K-$200K

Internal execution: $200K-$400K (if you hire engineers)

Total Year 1: $450K-$900K

Outcome: Strategy + pilot. Full deployment Year 2.

AI Workflow Automation:

First workflow (support): $12K

Second workflow (email marketing): $9K

Third workflow (ad creative): $15K

Managed service (ongoing): $8K/month × 12 = $96K

Total Year 1: $132K

Outcome: 3 working systems recovering 25-35 hours/week.

The Trap:

DTC brands hire enterprise AI consultants because “bigger firm = better.” Six months later, they have a beautiful strategy deck and zero working automation. The brand still processes support tickets manually, still writes email campaigns by hand, still struggles with ad creative production.

The better path for 95% of DTC brands: Start with workflow automation. Capture quick wins. Scale revenue to $50M+. Then hire enterprise consulting to architect multi-brand, multi-department AI strategy.

Enterprise consulting sells transformation. Workflow automation delivers time recovery. For DTC brands under $50M, time recovery is the transformation.