AI guide
Should a company buy an AI product or have a custom AI app built?
Buy an AI product when the job is common, such as meeting notes or general writing help, and you want it working right away. Have a custom AI app built when the value depends on your own data and process, because a product charges per seat for a general tool and a custom app is built around the work and owned by you.
| What you are comparing | A product | A custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Cost over five years | A subscription per user every year, often with usage charges for AI features on top. The total rises with headcount and with use. | A build priced once from a written scope, then running costs such as hosting and the AI model usage billed to your own account. No licenses. |
| Per-seat fees | Per-seat fees usually apply. AI features are commonly sold as an add-on per user or as credits that run out. | There are no per-seat fees. Every employee can use the app, and cost follows usage of the model and not the number of people. |
| Fit to your process | Built for the average company. It knows nothing about your approval rules, your document types or your terms unless the vendor lets you teach it. | Built around your own data, steps and permissions, and placed on the screen where the work already happens. |
| Time to launch | Fast to switch on. Getting staff to use it well, and connecting it to your systems, takes longer than the sign-up. | Starts with discovery and a written scope. The schedule is set in that scope, and you see working screens during the build. |
| Where your data goes | Into the vendor service, under the vendor terms. Check what is retained and whether it is used for training. | Through accounts in your company name, under terms you chose with the model provider. You decide what the app may read. |
| Changes after launch | You get what the vendor ships, when it ships. A feature you depend on can change or move to a higher plan. | You hold the code, so the app changes when your process does. Each change is scoped and built as needed. |
| Switching models | The vendor picks the AI model behind the product, and you take what it picks. | The model is a part that can be replaced. When a better or cheaper one appears, the app can be pointed at it. |
When an AI product is the right answer
Buy when the task is the same everywhere. Transcribing meetings, general drafting and code completion are served well by products, and building your own version would be waste.
Buy when you are still learning what AI is good for in your company. A few subscriptions are a cheap way to find the tasks worth building for.
When a custom AI app is the right answer
Build when the answer has to come from your own records. A tool that drafts a quote from your price book, or reads your intake forms into your system, depends on your data and your rules.
Build when the tool has to respect who may see what. Permissions that follow your org chart are hard to get from a general product and plain to build into a system you own.
How to compare the two fairly
Count seats and years on the product side, and include the add-ons and usage charges. On the custom side, count the build once and then the running costs, including model usage.
Black Badger publishes this guide and builds custom AI apps. We do not publish a price, because it depends on what the app must do and what it must connect to. A written scope gives you the number to compare.
What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one
Questions buyers ask
Is a custom AI app only for large companies?
No, a custom AI app is not limited to large companies. A custom app makes sense when a company has a repeated task that depends on its own data and enough people doing it to matter. Black Badger works mainly with companies of 50 or more employees, which is about where that starts to be true.
Does a custom AI app need its own AI model?
A custom AI app almost never needs its own model. It normally calls a model from an established provider. What is custom is everything around it, meaning the data it can reach, the instructions it follows, the checks on its output and the screens people use.
What happens to an AI app when the AI models change?
When the AI models change, an AI product updates on the vendor schedule. An app you own can be tested against a new model and switched when it does better on your own test questions, which is one reason to keep a set of them.