Hamel HusainML Engineer Helping Companies Build AI Products

Should you hire a consulting company to build your AI?

20 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief commentary, Hamel Husain argues that for any software‑based business, developing AI capabilities should be considered part of the company’s core competency. He reasons that because software products inherently involve knowledge work, AI is a natural extension of that work. Consequently, he cautions organizations against hiring external consulting firms to implement AI, suggesting that internal development is both feasible and strategically preferable.

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Should you engage with a consulting company to build your AI? And that is kind of leads to the question of, is AI competency building this AI product within your core competency? If it's a software business, it's hard to see how building an AI product is not within your core competency. If you're exposing a product of any kind that is software, yeah, it's really hard to see how it wouldn't be. And I haven't yet encountered a company where I feel like it isn't in their core competency. The reason is, is because if you're doing knowledge work, fundamentally AI should be within your core competency. So you should be really careful about getting a consulting company to help you implement AI.