A CTO's taxonomy of AI transformation vendors: outsourcers, talkers, risky platforms, $300K staffing
alex_verem · x · 2026-10-28
Marde Haym shares how a CTO at a financial software company sorted the stream of "agentic AI transformation partners" pitching him into four groups:
- "AI-powered" outsourcers: big talk, then "offshore people clicking AI buttons."
- "AI experts": "come in and can talk but don't seem to do anything at all."
- "Applied AI" startups: wanted a regulated company to move its whole stack onto a platform that isn't SOC 2 certified yet.
- "AI engineer" placement firms: a plan of seven hires at $300,000/year each.
The CTO's real stakes emerged minutes later: "If you guys don't produce, I just blew the rest of my year." A pointed look at the murky AI consulting ecosystem.
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