How big can the gap between an AI estimate and a real one be?

Azati cites an example shared by Chris Howard of Softeq at The Things Conference: a client expecting $50K for work estimated at $400K. The gap comes from the work around the code, not the code itself.

Has AI made software buyers better informed?

Azati agrees with the view that AI has made buyers better prepared rather than better informed. They arrive with confident specs and prices that often miss operational realities.

When should a vendor walk away from a project?

Azati suggests walking away politely when a client needs a low price to be true more than they need the system to work. Forcing an unrealistic budget usually fails both sides.

Your AI Says the Modernization Costs €20K. What Did It Leave Out?

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September 29, 2026

Your AI Says the Modernization Costs €20K. What Did It Leave Out?

Eugene Volkov

Commercial Director, Azati

Quick answer: Is €200K still sane for an AI-assisted, zero-downtime modernization of a 20-year-old PowerBuilder claims platform, or is it €20K and three weeks because ChatGPT said so? At The Things Conference in Amsterdam, Chris Howard (Softeq) put it neatly: AI hasn’t made clients better informed, it’s made them better prepared. His example: a client walks in sure it’s $50K; the real estimate is $400K. The AI estimate is rarely wrong about the code. It’s wrong about everything around the code: the data nobody cleaned, the systems it has to talk to, the edge cases living in one senior engineer’s head, the compliance sign-off, the go-live weekend. So before you trust the number: what did the model never ask you?

The shallow lesson: argue the client out of it

Fighting a confident buyer’s spreadsheet on the first call rarely wins anyone.

The real lesson: don’t fight the ChatGPT estimate. Ask to see it

Go through it line by line and circle what’s missing. That’s usually where most of the budget lives, and it turns an argument into a shared checklist.

The sobering part

Sometimes the honest move is a short paid discovery that lets the numbers do the arguing. And sometimes it’s walking away politely, when a client needs €50K to be true more than they need the system to work.

Full disclosure: Azati modernizes legacy platforms for a living, so we sit on the vendor side of that gap. See our legacy modernization services.

FAQ

Why are AI-generated project estimates so often too low?

They price the code and skip the context: data cleanup, integrations, undocumented edge cases, compliance, and cutover.

How should a vendor respond to a client’s AI estimate?

Ask to see it, walk through it line by line, and mark what’s missing – or propose a short paid discovery.

Holding an AI estimate that looks too good to be true?

Let’s talk

Adapted from a LinkedIn post by Eugene Volkov, Commercial Director at Azati Software – read the original, written after The Things Conference 2026 in Amsterdam.