21st Century Hamlet: Build or Buy your AI Solution?
Most of us who work in the software industry have debated this question before. It parallels with Hamlet’s famous ambivalence over life and death in “To Be, or not to Be”, in that the answer fails to be clear-cut. However, there are some key factors that we can evaluate to help us arrive at an answer that we can be confident in.
This blog post will outline 4 of these factors and pose some questions to help you to make the best decision of whether to build an AI solution internally or purchase one externally.
Unsurprisingly, the process of developing an AI solution and training a good quality model from scratch is more time-intensive than researching for a good product and integrating it into your system.
Paradoxically, buying a solution is also often cheaper, in terms of your Total Cost of Ownership, than building one. Manufacturing a software system is a major investment. Training models need to be updated consistently to remain accurate for the production use. The on-going cost of maintenance and optimising the AI model can be hugely underestimated, and it is expensive and time-consuming down the track – especially without a specialised team in house.
The quality and accuracy of the AI solution is a vital component to consider. If AI is not your main focus or doesn’t align with your central business objectives, then chances are that a specialised company offering the AI solution will do it better.
