How do we as non-technical owners hold an external software contractor accountable when they want to build expensive custom AI models rather than using simple off-the-shelf APIs?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you hire external developers, they often try to sell you on the complexity of building custom machine learning models. As a non-technical owner, you must resist this trap. Never let an external vendor sell you on AI theater. Instead, frame the entire contract as an operations-improvement project that happens to use machine learning as a footnote.

Hold them accountable using the same EOS principles you use for your own team. Clarify the expected operational output on your Scorecard before they write a single line of code. If they cannot guarantee a specific reduction in processing time or manual error rates, do not sign the contract.

Insist on using simple, off-the-shelf APIs rather than custom-trained models. Most operational bottlenecks can be solved with basic integrations using existing large language models. Your job is to define the exact input and the desired output based on your documented standard operating procedures. By forcing the vendor to build a system-dependent operation rather than a complex technical science project, you protect your bottom line and ensure the resulting tool actually increases the value of your business.