Genuinely asking because I don't want to learn this the expensive way.
We're about to start a real project and need to bring in a custom AI development company for the build. Looked into a few options and honestly most of their websites sound identical, same buzzwords, same promises, no way to actually tell who's good and who's just marketing well.
Never hired anyone in this space before so I don't have a gut feel for what red flags even look like yet.
A few things I'm trying to figure out:
- What questions actually reveal whether a team has real hands on experience versus just theory
- Whether asking for a small paid pilot before the full contract is normal or considered excessive