Unleashing the Power of AI Outsourcing: Your Ultimate Guide!

With AI outsourcing services, forget about those times when robotic process automation and better-informed decisions were the privilege of few. Today, anyone can deliver personalized recommendations like Booking or Instagram, automatically optimize prices like Uber or Ryanair, timely predict churn like Netflix or Spotify, and relish other tech opportunities with no substantial upfront investments.

Why Artificial Intelligence Has Caught On?

Over the past decade, artificial intelligence has enriched our daily routine with smart voice assistants, customer-tailored recommendation engines, apps with predictive typing and facial recognition functionality, website chatbots, autonomous cars, and other AI-based marvels. But how exactly does the technology work under the hood, and why is it sought-after?

The history of AI hearkens back to the 1950s, when the masterminds of those time were making the first attempts to combine the power of machines and the human brain. That’s how checkers-playing and chess-playing programs saw the light of the day. After 50 years of experiments and zealous work, we've got the technology that learns from the data fed to algorithms and imitates such parts of human intelligence as visual perception, speech recognition, reasoning, and translation.

Today’s artificial intelligence takes care of data clusterization, regression, forecasting, dimensionality reduction, and anomaly detection, enabling organizations to get the most out of their business data. Moreover, by encompassing machine learning, deep learning, and computer vision, AI serves as the groundwork for natural language processing and intelligent data retrieval.

You can raise an objection and reply that people can also handle these tasks. But the truth is that algorithms can analyze huge data chunks in no time, while enabling companies to boost effectiveness and overall productivity. Now you got it why AI has found favor with millions of undertakers and why its market is anticipated to surpass $1.8 trillion by 2030.

Outsourcing vs. Outstaffing

As we speak, AI continues straddling our digital era and enthralling the minds of entrepreneurs who strive to remain competitive. If you are one of them but lack experience with this hippest technology or resources for in-house specialists, resorting to an AI staffing agency or an attempt to build an offshore team for AI development would be a good idea.

Let's fill in the blanks in our knowledge and explore the difference.

Both outsourcing and AI staffing solutions are excellent ways to bring your project to life with minimal investments. However, since our article is primarily dedicated to AI outsourcing, let's focus on the peculiarities of this model.

AI/ML Outsourcing Services You Should Try

According to research by Deloitte, 65% of respondent companies state that outsourcing allows them to concentrate on core business functions while optimizing performance and costs. This is another pro-argument to outsource machine learning.

Below, we shortlist the tasks you can delegate to AI startups with peace of mind.

• Image analytics (building systems capable of detecting objects in images and videos);
• Advanced data analysis (creating functionality that can process vast data amounts to uncover hidden insights, correlations, and patterns);
• Predictive analytics (elaborating solutions that anticipate trends, predict anomalies, and detect frauds with the help of historical data analysis);
• Natural language processing (developing systems that recognize and imitate written or spoken human language);
• AI-powered chatbots (outsourcing AI to create next-gen virtual assistants and integrate them into the existing solution).

Outsourcing AI Development in 7 Steps

If you want to revamp your business and shift the burden of AI software development to artificial intelligence and machine learning outsourcing companies, select a tech partner wisely. Here are our tips to help you surmount the challenge.

Step#1. Analyze Your Business Idea

To make the project live up to your expectations, start with a profound market analysis and assess the potential saleability of the end product. Then, answer the following questions to define your starting point from a technical perspective:

• What are the goals of your project? What business needs will it cover?
• What machine learning outsourcing services are required?
• What will be the product's role in the company's IT ecosystem?
• Is it project overtake or from-scratch development? Have you already used any tools or architecture in the project?
• Do you have enough data for the specified task? Is it high-quality data?
• Are there any security limitations regarding data processing?
• Do you want to deploy your own models or use existing APIs?
• What is your budget for hardware?
• What specialists/expertise do you need?
• What are the estimated deadlines?

In the end, you should get a clear vision of the future product and its functionality, as well as the team and technologies. If you need help with this step, don't hesitate to turn to AI outsourcing consultants. That’s their job, after all.

Step#2. Allocate the Budget

No matter whether you outsource data science, machine learning, or AI, your specialists' work will most probably be estimated in hours. Thus, to set the budget limit per specialist, allocate a particular sum of money for the entire project (or per month) and do calculations using the information from the previous step (the exact team structure and project duration). Also, don’t forget to include hardware costs in your financial plan.

Step#3. Scrutinize the Outsourcing Market

Now that you know your financial capabilities and project requirements, it's time to get the search started. The simplest way to find a competent AI and machine learning outsource partner is to ask your industry peers for recommendations or scrutinize the vast reaches of Google and review platforms like IAOP or Clutch.co.

Step#4. Reach Out to Several Companies

After a thorough analysis, shortlist 5 to 7 potential AI outsourcing partners and get in touch with them. During meetings, pay attention to their tech and human talent capabilities, language skills, methodologies, and exact hourly rates. Then, handpick the best-fit service provider.

Step#5. Sign a Contract

This step is dedicated to red-tape issues, i.e., you need to stipulate all the conditions, terms, and payment models, as well as decide on the infrastructure access policies and sign the documents. Also, if you want to double-protect the sensitive data, conclude an NDA.

Step#6. Create a Roadmap

When outsourcing AI development, define communication channels and elaborate the roadmap before the launch to keep abreast with the progress of the project. In this way, you will see the deadlines for each stage and be able to monitor the workflow.

Step#7. Launch the Project

After finishing all the preparations, you can kick the project off and wait for the first fruits of labor.

Food for Thought

Some experts dub artificial intelligence a mixed blessing, as it enriches companies with never-yet-seen capabilities while raising such issues as job displacement or information bias. However, we believe that with the right combination of technology and human talent, it is possible to turn AI into a competitive advantage for your business. The only challenge here is to strike this fine balance. 

Dare to do some AI outsourcing? Team up with us, and we will clue you in on the best-fit transformation options, provide you with the necessary skills for AI implementation, and turn your project vision into a stunning solution.