How do I choose an AI development company?
Short answer. Choose an AI development company by three checks. First, the systems they have already shipped, described as a workflow, a data source, and a production result, not as a list of model names. Second, the people who will do the work, and whether those people stay past the proposal. Third, whether you keep the code, the indexes, the prompts, and the infrastructure accounts. A company that can show those three is a credible hire. Corpvance publishes the case studies, keeps senior people on delivery, and transfers ownership of the code to the client.
An answer you can check and An answer that stays vague.
The same decision, one row at a time. Use the row that matches the constraint you actually have.
| Focus | An answer you can check | An answer that stays vague |
|---|---|---|
| Past work | A case study names the user, the data, and what reached production. | A logo wall, a model list, or a demo on a sample PDF. |
| The team | You meet the people who will design and build, and they stay on the project. | Senior people appear for the sale, and delivery moves to a team you have not met. |
| The first slice | A short pilot on your data, with one permission rule and one real action. | A long discovery that ends in slides and a larger proposal. |
| Evaluation | They can say how they will tell a good answer from a bad one on your data. | Quality is described as the model being state of the art. |
| Ownership | Code, indexes, prompts, and cloud accounts are yours if the engagement ends. | The working system stays inside their tenant or their proprietary wrapper. |
Pick the side that matches the job.
Both options are legitimate. The mistake is buying one when the work has the shape of the other.
Move forward when
- A case study resembles your problem in workflow, not only in industry vocabulary.
- The proposal names the data sources, the permission boundary, and the first user.
- You can see who will review the architecture after kickoff.
- Leaving would mean taking a repository with you, not losing the system.
Pause when
- The only proof is a chatbot on public documents.
- The proposal leads with a model brand and has no evaluation plan.
- You cannot tell who will be on the project after the sales call.
- The system only runs inside an account you do not control.
Three checks that settle the decision.
- 01
Read one case study end to end
It should say what was hard about the data or the workflow. Corpvance project pages are written that way so a buyer can compare the problem, not the adjectives.
- 02
Ask for the failure cases
A serious team can describe what the system should refuse, what it should cite, and what a human still approves. A demo that only shows the happy path is unfinished.
- 03
Put ownership in the agreement
Source code, repository access, infrastructure credentials, and documentation transfer to the client. Confirm that before implementation, not at handover.
Systems that match this kind of decision.
Each card links to the full case study. The reason is why that project belongs on this question.
Vyspar
Niche Social Network for Medical Professionals
A verified network and AI research platform for medical professionals, a domain where a generic chat demo would not be the product.
Transcendence
Premium Holographic Digital Human Platform
A real-time AI platform presented as a holographic digital human, which had to run as a product, not as a notebook.
The next question people ask.
- Who should I hire to build an AI agent or a RAG system?Hire a team that has shipped agents against private data, permissions, and failure cases. A public-document demo is a different system.Read the answer
- Should I hire an AI product studio or an AI consulting firm?Hire a consultancy for a decision and a plan. Hire a studio when the AI system has to run in production.Read the answer
Questions on this decision
The short version of the same choice, in the phrasing people use when they ask.
01What should I ask an AI development company to show me?
One shipped system with the user, the data sources, and the production constraint. Then the names of the people who would do your work, and a statement of what you own if you stop. Model logos, certification badges, and a public-PDF demo do not replace those three.
02How should I judge a retrieval or agent demo?
Ask whose documents it is searching, what it is allowed to see, and what happens when the answer is not in the source. A useful demo cites the source, refuses when it should, and takes one action in a tool you already use. A polished chat window on sample text is a different test.
03What should we still have if the engagement ends?
The repository, the infrastructure accounts, the indexes, the prompts, and enough documentation for another team to run the system. Corpvance client agreements transfer code and intellectual property to the client. A system that only runs in the vendor's tenant is a rental.
