How to buy AI without getting burned
Most AI money is lost to the wrong vendor rather than the wrong idea. The pricing traps, the diligence questions, and the failure patterns worth recognising before you sign anything.
Everything we've written on this
What is a forward deployed engineer?
A forward deployed engineer works inside one customer's business and ships software against its real problem. Where the role came from and when to hire one.
Read
Composable commerce: what it is, what it costs, and when it pays
Composable commerce builds a store from separate API-connected services. How it differs from headless and MACH, what it costs, and when to stay on one platform.
Read
When to hire vs embed AI engineers
When to hire vs embed AI engineers: two senior seats open four months is the signal to stop recruiting. Embedded AI Teams start at $3,000–$7,500/engineer/mo.
Read
Vendor Roulette: why switching AI vendors keeps you at square one
Third vendor, same line. Why switching AI vendors resets you to zero, what the last engagement should have left, and how to make this the last.
Read
Solution looking for a problem: how to spot a doomed AI project
Five tells in the first meeting, before any code. Each is a question you can ask, and the answers say whether an AI project fails or should be funded.
Read
In-house, freelancer, or agency: who should build your AI agent
You've decided to build custom. Hire AI in-house vs agency depends on whether AI is core to your product, and who operates it in year two.
Read
Bait-and-Bill: the AI pricing trap to watch for
The headline number isn't the price, it's the entry fee for an open-ended meter. The five contract clauses that give the trap away, and what to ask for.
Read
Nine questions to ask any AI agency before you sign
The questions that separate a firm that ships from one that demos — what each is really testing, and what a bad answer sounds like. Ask ours the same ones.
Read
Software factory, not software agency: how the mid-market ships in the AI era
A software factory is a quality-gated line of senior engineers and AI agents, not bespoke projects, and why the mid-market should hire one.
Read
Want this running in your stack?
If this is the kind of work you're trying to get into production, a 30-minute call with an engineer is the fastest path to a scoped plan with a price.