How Do You Evaluate Custom AI Development Services When You Have No Technical Background Yourself

[RemoteState]

Full disclosure, I am a first time founder with a business background, not a technical one, and this whole process is making me feel completely out of my depth.

We need custom AI development services for a product recommendation feature and every proposal I read sounds equally convincing because I truly cannot tell the difference between good technical judgment and confident sounding jargon. Every custom AI development company we have talked to use similar language, similar buzzwords, similar promises. I have no way to independently verify who actually knows what they are talking about.

My co-founder handles the technical side but he is buried in other priorities right now and I need to make some initial decisions before he can properly review anything. Trying to figure out how to evaluate this without embarrassing myself or making an expensive mistake.

What Non Technical Founders Told Me Actually Helped Them​

Posted a version of this question in a founder group and got some truly useful advice on evaluating a custom AI development company without a technical background:

• Ask them to explain their approach in plain language and pay attention to whether they simplify it clearly or just repeat jargon louder, that alone reveals a lot
• A good custom AI development company in USA will happily walk a non technical founder through their reasoning without making you feel stupid for asking basic questions
• Request client references specifically and ask those references how communication felt throughout the project, not just whether the end result worked
• Bring in a technical advisor for even one paid consulting hour before signing anything significant with custom AI development services, it is worth the cost
• Watch how they respond when you ask what could go wrong, vendors confident enough to discuss failure modes honestly are usually more trusted
• If a custom AI development company cannot explain what data they need from you and why in terms you understand, that is a red flag regardless of their technical credentials

Where I Am At​

Hired someone from a freelance technical advisory network for two hours just to sit in on our next vendor call and ask sharper questions than I know how to ask myself. Feels like the smartest money I have spent this month honestly. If any non technical founders here have gone through this and found a good way to evaluate custom AI development services without feeling completely lost, would love to hear what worked for you.