Advizr vs hiring in-house
Hiring an AI-capable engineer is the right move for some businesses. Here’s the honest comparison so you can tell which one you are.
The numbers
| In-house hire | Advizr Partnership | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | $120,000–180,000 CAD + benefits + tooling | $46,000–70,000 CAD ($10k+ build, $3–5k/mo) |
| Time to first shipped system | 3–6 months (hiring + ramp) | 1–3 weeks |
| Breadth | One person’s skill set | Engineering + strategy + education |
| Team training included | No — that’s a second job | Yes, built into every engagement |
| Risk if it doesn’t work out | Severance, restart hiring | Cancel with 30 days’ notice |
| Knowledge retention | Leaves when they leave | Documented systems + your team trained |
When hiring is the better call
- You have sustained, full-time AI engineering volume — not just a backlog of automations but a product to build
- AI is becoming your core product, not your operations layer
- You’re ready to also hire the management structure an engineer needs to thrive
In those cases, hire — and we’ll say so on the call. Some clients use Advizr as the bridge: we build the foundation and train the team while they recruit, then hand over to the hire.
When the partnership wins
- You need outcomes in weeks, not quarters
- Your volume is real but doesn’t justify a full-time salary
- You want your existing team upskilled, not bypassed
- You want the option to stop paying without a severance conversation
Next steps
- Pricing — what the partnership actually costs
- How we work — the engagement model
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