The verdict in three sentences
For a 900-employee mid-sized company in Montreal sitting on 40,000 procedures and technical notes, an AI search assistant (RAG) costs 20,000 to 50,000 EUR to build, with running costs of 300 to 1,500 EUR a month. The project pays off as soon as a few hundred employees search for information several times a day, since the observed ballpark is 25 minutes saved per day per regular user. The non-negotiable condition is respecting existing access rights: the assistant must never quote a document the user could not open themselves.
Why classic search fails on 40,000 documents
An industrial company's procedures are spread across SharePoint, an old file server, a quality management tool and scanned PDFs. File names are inconsistent, versions overlap and keyword search returns 300 results with the right one on page 4. A technician searching for "tightening tolerance line 3" does not know the exact title of the procedure.
A RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) assistant indexes document content, retrieves relevant passages by meaning, then writes a short answer citing its sources with link and version. The employee checks in one click. The model only answers from indexed documents, which sharply limits invented answers.
| 2026 option | Setup cost | Monthly cost | Respects rights | Hosting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot built into the office suite | 0 to 5,000 EUR | 25 to 30 EUR per user | Yes, within the suite only | Per vendor contract |
| Specialised SaaS solution | 5,000 to 15,000 EUR | 1,500 to 6,000 EUR | Yes, standard connectors | Regional option |
| Custom RAG, model via regional API | 20,000 to 35,000 EUR | 300 to 900 EUR | Yes, all systems | Canada or EU region |
| Custom RAG, self-hosted model | 35,000 to 50,000 EUR | 900 to 1,500 EUR (GPU) | Yes, all systems | Your servers or sovereign cloud |
| Improved classic search engine | 8,000 to 15,000 EUR | 100 to 300 EUR | Yes | Your choice |
What drives the budget
Three factors move the range. The first is the number of sources to connect: SharePoint alone is simple, four systems with different permissions need one connector each. The second is document quality: 15 to 25% scanned PDFs require character recognition and clean-up. The third is the level of data sovereignty required by management or by your key customers.
| Line item | 2026 range | Share of budget |
|---|---|---|
| Scoping, mapping sources and permissions | 3,000 to 6,000 EUR | 12% |
| Connectors and permission sync | 6,000 to 15,000 EUR | 30% |
| Document processing (OCR, chunking, metadata) | 4,000 to 10,000 EUR | 20% |
| Search interface and citations | 3,000 to 8,000 EUR | 16% |
| Evaluation on 200 real questions | 2,000 to 5,000 EUR | 10% |
| Training, rollout, privacy documentation | 2,000 to 6,000 EUR | 12% |
The monthly AI cost depends on question volume. For 400 active users asking 8 questions a day, about 65,000 queries a month, the API bill for a regionally hosted model generally stays under 900 EUR. These are 2026 ballpark figures, to be recalculated on your real volumes.
Privacy, security and team trust
An internal assistant handles potentially personal data (meeting minutes, misfiled HR records) and industrial secrets. The minimum requirements are easy to state: hosting and processing in a controlled region, a contractual commitment from the model provider not to reuse data, query logs kept 6 to 12 months, exclusion of sensitive folders from the index and a privacy impact assessment if HR data is involved, as required under Quebec's Law 25. Involve your privacy officer and employee representatives from the start: an assistant perceived as a surveillance tool will not be used.
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Thomas, CIO of a 900-employee industrial company near Montreal, identified 300 technicians and process engineers who consult procedures every day. Based on 25 minutes saved per day over 210 days, the gross gain reaches 26,250 hours a year. To stay prudent, he only keeps 30%, or 7,875 hours genuinely redeployed, valued at 38 EUR loaded cost: 299,250 EUR a year. The custom RAG project cost 38,000 EUR, plus 900 EUR a month to run, so 48,800 EUR in year one. Even dividing the retained gain by three, payback stays under six months.
FAQ
Can the assistant give a wrong answer?
Yes, it can, hence the need for systematic citations and an evaluation on 200 real questions before rollout. A rate of 85 to 90% correct, sourced answers is a realistic 2026 target.
How long does deployment take?
Allow 8 to 14 weeks from scoping to full rollout, including a 3 to 4 week pilot with 30 to 50 users.
Do we need to clean up the 40,000 documents first?
No, but obsolete versions must be identified. The assistant favours documents tagged "in force", and removing the 10 to 15% of obvious duplicates noticeably improves quality.
Does the data stay in Canada or the EU?
Yes, if you choose a model accessed by API from a regional data centre or a self-hosted model. Self-hosting adds roughly 600 EUR a month.
What happens when a procedure is updated?
Sync re-indexes the document within minutes to hours depending on the chosen frequency. Old versions are removed or tagged as archived.
Let's scope your project. We map your document sources and access rights, then cost a regionally hosted RAG pilot with an 8 to 14 week schedule. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
