Start Lesson
Your Phase 1 experiments are working. Your CEO wants to accelerate. The recruiter sends over three resumes: a $220K "Head of AI" with a PhD in machine learning, a $95K "AI Operations Manager" with prompt engineering experience, and a freelance developer at $150/hour who has built AI integrations for similar companies. You have budget for one. Which one do you hire, and when? The wrong choice here wastes six figures and six months.
This lesson gives you a role-by-phase mapping, market rates for AI talent, and a vendor evaluation scorecard. By the end, you will have a staffing plan that matches your roadmap from Lesson 4 -- hiring the right roles at the right time, not before.
A completed AI Staffing Plan mapping roles to your adoption phases, plus a Vendor Evaluation Scorecard you can use to assess any AI tool or service provider.
The biggest staffing mistake is hiring for Phase 4 when you are in Phase 1. A $220K VP of AI sitting in a company that is still experimenting with ChatGPT is an expensive way to write prompts.
| Phase (from Lesson 4) | Role Needed | Hire or Outsource | Why | |------------------------|-------------|-------------------|-----| | Phase 1: Quick Wins | AI Champion | Internal (existing team member) | Needs deep business context, not technical skill. Pick your most curious person. | | Phase 2: Team Workflows | Prompt Engineer | Internal (existing or new hire) | Prompt libraries encode your domain knowledge and brand voice. Keep this in-house. | | Phase 3: Automation | Integration Developer | Outsource first, then evaluate hire | Project-based work. Contract a developer for the first 2-3 integrations. Hire only if volume justifies it. | | Phase 4: Strategic | AI/ML Engineer | Hire when ROI justifies | Only when you are building AI into your product. Not before. |
Who they are: An internal evangelist and experimenter. Not necessarily technical. Curious, organized, persistent.
What they do:
Cost: This is an existing employee dedicating 5-10 hours/week. No new hire required. The investment is their time, not a new salary.
Who they are: Someone who writes well and thinks systematically about getting consistent outputs from AI. Less technical skill, more clear communication and structured thinking.
What they do:
Market rates (2025-2026):
| Arrangement | Rate | |-------------|------| | Full-time hire (mid-level) | $85,000-$120,000/year | | Full-time hire (senior, with AI ops experience) | $120,000-$160,000/year | | Freelance/contract | $75-$150/hour |
Hiring signal: You need this role when your prompt library exceeds 20 templates and multiple teams are using AI daily. Before that, the AI Champion handles it.
Who they are: A technical resource who connects AI to your existing systems via APIs, automation platforms, and custom code.
What they do:
Market rates (2025-2026):
| Arrangement | Rate | |-------------|------| | Full-time hire (mid-level) | $120,000-$160,000/year | | Full-time hire (senior, with AI/ML experience) | $160,000-$220,000/year | | Freelance/contract | $125-$250/hour | | AI integration agency (project-based) | $15,000-$75,000 per project |
Hiring signal: You need this as a full-time role when you have 3+ active AI integrations requiring ongoing maintenance. Before that, contract the work project by project.
For each role you are considering, score these factors:
| Factor | Weight | Hire (1-5) | Outsource (1-5) | |--------|--------|------------|-----------------| | Requires deep business context (brand voice, domain knowledge, customer understanding) | 3x | | | | Ongoing daily work vs. project-based | 2x | | | | Institutional knowledge risk (what happens if they leave?) | 2x | | | | Speed to start (how fast do you need someone?) | 2x | | | | Budget fit (can you commit to a salary?) | 2x | | | | Weighted Total | | ___ | ___ |
The pattern: Outsource implementation (integrations, fine-tuning, security audits). Keep judgment in-house (prompt libraries, quality standards, strategic decisions). Your prompts encode your domain knowledge, brand voice, and standards -- they are institutional knowledge and should not live in a consultant's Google Drive.
When you are in Phase 2 or 3 and considering buying an AI tool, score every vendor before signing:
| Criterion | Score (1-5) | Notes | |-----------|-------------|-------| | Industry fit: Can they show case studies in your industry? Similar size, similar workflows? | | Generic demos are not evidence. | | Data policy: Where is your data stored? Is it used for training? Can you delete it? Retention period? | | Read the policy, not the sales page. | | Export capability: Can you take your templates, configurations, and historical data with you? In what format? | | If you cannot exit cleanly, factor in switching cost. | | Pricing at scale: What does it cost at 10x your current usage? Is pricing committed or subject to change? | | Get written pricing commitments. | | Model update handling: When the underlying model changes, what happens to your outputs? Can you pin versions? | | Uncontrolled model updates can break tuned workflows. | | Support and SLA: Response time for issues? Uptime guarantee? Dedicated account manager? | | "Email support" is not adequate for production workflows. | | Security and compliance: SOC 2 certified? GDPR compliant? HIPAA eligible if needed? | | Ask for the audit report, not just the claim. | | Total (out of 35) | ___ | |
Interpretation:
| Score | Recommendation | |-------|---------------| | 28-35 | Strong vendor. Proceed with contract negotiation. | | 20-27 | Acceptable with caveats. Clarify weak areas before signing. | | 13-19 | Significant gaps. Consider alternatives. | | 7-12 | Do not proceed. |
When you reach the point of hiring dedicated AI talent, the single most important interview question is:
"Walk me through the last time you decided NOT to use AI for something."
The best AI hires are not the ones who know the most models or the trendiest frameworks. They are the ones who start with the business problem and work backward to the technology. You want someone who suggests a simple prompt template when that is sufficient, rather than proposing a $50,000 custom model because it is more interesting.
Other questions that filter for judgment:
The right AI hire makes things simpler, not more complex.
Deliverable 1: Staffing Plan. Map roles to your adoption roadmap from Lesson 4.
| Phase | Timeline | Role Needed | Hire or Outsource | Estimated Cost | Named Person or "To Hire" | |-------|----------|-------------|-------------------|----------------|--------------------------| | Phase 1 | Weeks 1-2 | AI Champion | Internal (existing) | 5-10 hrs/week of existing employee | | | Phase 2 | Months 1-3 | | | | | | Phase 3 | Months 3-6 | | | | | | Phase 4 | Month 6+ | | | | |
Deliverable 2: Vendor Scorecard. If you identified any "Buy" recommendations in Lesson 2, score at least one vendor using the scorecard above. If you have not selected a vendor yet, use the scorecard to evaluate your top 2 candidates side by side.
Your output should have: A staffing plan with roles mapped to phases and estimated costs, plus at least one completed vendor scorecard if applicable.
You have now built six stacking artifacts that together form a complete AI strategy:
| Artifact | From Lesson | What It Answers | |----------|-------------|-----------------| | AI Opportunity Scorecard | Lesson 1 | Where should we use AI? | | Build/Buy/Prompt Decision Matrix | Lesson 2 | How should we implement each opportunity? | | ROI Calculator | Lesson 3 | What is it worth in dollars? | | Phased Adoption Roadmap | Lesson 4 | When do we roll out each initiative? | | Risk Register + Guardrails Policy | Lesson 5 | What could go wrong and how do we prevent it? | | Staffing Plan + Vendor Scorecard | Lesson 6 | Who does the work? |
The next step is yours. Take your Phase 1 quick wins from the roadmap, confirm the risks are manageable, and start the experiment this week. Measure the results using your ROI calculator. If the numbers work, advance to Phase 2. If they do not, adjust your approach or pick a different opportunity from your scorecard.
The best AI strategy is not the most ambitious one. It is the one that starts generating measurable value this month.
