Agency Comparison
Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento vs Plain Concepts
Two top-rated AI Consulting agencies in Madrid.
Comparison updated · Newest review
Side by side
Published data on both agencies. Where one side measurably differs, the dot marks it: the higher score, the lower published rate, the larger team, the more recent review. Which of those is an advantage depends on your brief.
| Attribute | Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento | Plain Concepts |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial score | 65.8/100 | Higher score: 68/100 |
| Hourly rate | Contact for rates | €85-130/hr |
| Team size | 50-249 | Larger team: 250+ |
| Location | Madrid, Spain | Madrid, Spain |
| Founded | 1989 | 2006 |
| Last reviewed | More recent review: Sep 24, 2026 | Sep 7, 2026 |
What we said about each
Our take on Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento
Fifty-seven project write-ups are published, from 2015 to 2026, and the named clients among them are mostly Spanish utilities, energy companies and public hospitals—the newest named engagement is a reservoir-inflow forecasting system implemented for Canal de Isabel II, Madrid's public water company, built to catch flow peaks in the region's headwater reservoirs. The two generative-AI systems with the strongest figures name no client: a call-quality checker for an energy company cut the calls…
Reviewed Sep 24, 2026
Read the full assessment →Our take on Plain Concepts
The AI portfolio is named, dated and Azure-deep: ALEX writes cataract discharge reports for the Ribera healthcare group on Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search with dynamic few-shot retrieval, validated at 96% of reports needing no physician correction, with the head of ophthalmology quoted by name. AENOR's standards search pairs a machine-learning search engine with an assistant over 50,000 published certifications, Thera4All's Brain runs Azure OpenAI inside Plain Concepts' own Evergine engine…
Reviewed Sep 7, 2026
Read the full assessment →Best for
Where each agency measurably leads on the published data — team capacity, declared specializations, editorial scoring, and rates where both publish them. Use these to match an agency to your project priorities.
Choose Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento if you need
- closer collaboration at a smaller team scale
- disclosed specialization in Public Sector
Choose Plain Concepts if you need
- larger team capacity for multi-stream or enterprise-scale programs
- disclosed specialization in Manufacturing
- a higher overall editorial score
Strengths and watch-outs
Both upsides and risks, straight from our editorial assessments.
Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento
Strengths
- A non-profit R&D center founded in 1989, whose associates are IBM España, Grupo Santander, MAPFRE and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid—backers of the institute, as the site states, not clients
- 93 models and 22 datasets on the institute's Hugging Face account, including the RigoBERTa Spanish models and four clinical Spanish NLP evaluation sets, so method can be inspected before a call
- Four named public-health engagements: sepsis alerts at Hospital Son Llàtzer, labor-induction support at Fuenlabrada, allergy coding for SERMAS and a residents' skills test at La Princesa
Watch-outs
- 23 of the 57 write-ups date from 2016 or earlier, and the two generative-AI systems with the strongest figures name no client—ask for a reference from work delivered in the last two years
- SERMAS and La Princesa are described as pilots, Redeia as an exploratory project and Garrigues as joint research—ask which named systems are still running
- Prosegur, Correos and Repsol hired the institute for selection tests and network analysis rather than machine learning—check that references match the problem you are bringing
Plain Concepts
Strengths
- Four named-client AI systems published with the stack named, including a healthcare deployment validated at 96% of generated reports requiring no physician correction
- Own graphics engine (Evergine) and a Microsoft relationship deep enough that Nestlé's 700-expert Global IT Hub uses them across security, MLOps and generative AI
- More than 700 employees published, so a multi-workstream program is staffable without subcontracting
Watch-outs
- Most case studies close on qualitative bullets rather than measured outcomes—ask for the metric that moved on the engagement closest to yours
- Nearly all published work is Azure-native; if you run on AWS or GCP, ask for a delivered system on your stack
- At €85–130/h they price above most of the Spanish market—scope tightly, since published projects range from multi-year programs to single features
Service coverage
Both agencies cover the same services — on this axis there is nothing to separate them, so decide on the evidence behind the work rather than its labels.
Industry coverage
Where the two overlap, and where each covers ground the other does not.
Only Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento
Only Plain Concepts
Pricing math
What a 12-week engagement at one full-time equivalent (~480 hours) costs at each agency’s published rate. An arithmetic projection, not a quote — real scopes move with seniority mix and team shape.
Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento
Contact for rates
Plain Concepts
Rate: €85-130/hr
€40,800–€62,400
Only Plain Concepts publishes a rate, so there is no gap to measure. Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento quotes per engagement — ask for a rate card early, since a comparison that starts on scope and ends on price tends to end late.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has more FinTech experience, Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento or Plain Concepts?
- Both agencies show documented FinTech work and have similar industry breadth. Compare directly on the agency profiles: Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento and Plain Concepts.
- Which scores higher overall, Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento or Plain Concepts?
- Plain Concepts scores 68/100, 2.2 points higher than Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento at 65.8/100. See our methodology for how scores are calculated.
- When should I consider both Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento and Plain Concepts?
- Consider running parallel discovery briefs with Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento and Plain Concepts if your project spans multiple workstreams, you want competitive proposals to compare scope and approach, or you're undecided between the specialization angles each brings (see the Best for cards above). Most engagements ultimately go with one — but the parallel-brief phase is a low-cost way to validate fit.
Read the full reviews
A side-by-side is a starting point. The full assessments carry the portfolio analysis, documented engagements, and the evidence behind every strength and watch-out above.