02/12/2025
We’ll say the quiet part out loud: we earn money building custom AI, and we still tell most teams not to build it.
That honesty turned into one of the key answers in our 25-question AI guide.
Here’s the decision logic we actually use at LogiNet before writing a single line of code:
🔍 Can an existing tool handle about 80% of the job?
If yes, use it. Customise the rest.
Most companies need better spreadsheets, not custom AI.
💰 Is the problem worth more than $200K per year?
If the financial impact isn’t that big, custom development rarely pays off.
🧹 Do you have clean, usable data?
If not, no AI model, custom or boxed, will magically fix it.
Clean the data first.
⏳ Will this process still matter in two years?
If the answer is no, don’t build. Use an off-the-shelf tool and move on.
And here’s what the cost side actually looks like in real projects:
• Smart API wrapper → $5–15K, 2–4 weeks
• Custom ML model → $50–200K, 3–6 months
• Full custom AI platform → $200K+, 6–12 months
• Existing tool + integration → $5–20K
When do we finally say “yes, build it”?
• ROI can be measured within 12 months
• There’s genuinely no existing tool that solves the problem
• The team has good data, a realistic budget, and patience
• The workflow is core to the business, not a side process
One example:
Our water-industry project. Demand prediction.
No SaaS did it properly.
So we built a custom model and it saved them millions.
That’s when custom makes sense.
When do we recommend sticking to boxed tools instead?
• HR, basic CRM, standard analytics
• Budget under $50K
• You need the solution “by next week”
• Or the reason is simply “our competitors use AI”
Custom AI works but only when the problem is big enough, stable enough, and measurable enough to justify it.
It’s one of the 25 questions we answered honestly in our AI reality check.
👉 See all 25 practical answers: https://campaign.loginet.com/ai-implementation-reality-check