Hire an AI developer who ships working systems

What an AI developer actually does

Most business AI work today does not train new models. It connects existing models from providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic to your data and tools. The developer writes the instructions, retrieves the right documents, calls your systems, checks the output and handles failures.

See how these fit together on our AI development page.

Tests that matter more than a portfolio

• Evaluation. Ask how they measure whether answers are right. A serious developer builds a set of test questions with expected answers and re-runs it after every change.
• Failure handling. Ask what the system does when the model is wrong, slow or unavailable.
• Data privacy. Ask which data goes to which provider, what is stored, and how long. Check provider terms on data use and retention.
• Cost control. Ask how they estimate token costs per request and cap them.
• Human review. For anything that spends money or changes records, there should be an approval step.

Our LLM evaluation checklist gives you a starting framework, and the AI vendor evaluation checklist covers contract points.

Freelancer, agency, in-house or offshore

Whichever you pick, start with a small paid pilot against one real task. A two to four week pilot teaches you more than any interview. Our build vs buy AI guide helps if a ready-made tool might do the job.

Interview questions

1. How would you test whether this assistant gives correct answers before launch?
2. What do you do when a model makes up a fact?
3. How do you stop one customer's data reaching another customer?
4. Which model would you start with for this job and why? What would make you switch?
5. How do you keep prompts, test sets and settings under version control?
6. What will this cost per month at my expected volume?
7. What would you leave out of the first version?

The last question is the most revealing. People who have shipped AI systems know what to cut.

Ownership and risk

Accounts with model providers should be in your name, with spending limits set. Code, prompts, test sets and logs belong to you. Avoid contracts that tie your data to a single vendor's platform without an export route.

Privacy laws vary by country and by the kind of data involved. Check with your lawyer or data protection contact before you send personal or sensitive data to any provider.

Ask for a short written note on how the system will be monitored after launch. Models change, data changes and customers ask unexpected questions. Someone should read a sample of real conversations every week at first, flag wrong answers, and add them to the test set. That habit is cheap, and it is what separates a system that improves from one that quietly drifts.

How hiring Liftup works

Liftup Technologies builds chatbots, agents, voice agents and automations using the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs and tools like n8n. We are headquartered in Pune, with offices in Coventry and New York, and we work remotely in your hours.

After a short call you get a fixed quote within one working day. One lead manages the build and you see a working demo every week. The rate is $30 an hour and projects start at $1,500. For ranges in the market, read our AI agent cost guide. See other roles on the hire page or contact us.