Jun 27, 2025
9 Min
 read

Scale AI Projects With Machine Learning Team Extension

In 2025 and the upcoming days, startups and mid-level or large companies are moving to the next step of technical advancement with data-driven operations that can automate their work and save costs through the use of AI technology. For this reason, the demand for hiring AI developers and machine learning experts is growing fast. For startup companies, hiring full-time, in-house AI engineers is not always a good option. Offshore AI engineers are a good option for startups and mid-level software companies. That's where the Machine Learning (ML) team extension comes in. Team extension helps companies grow their current development team by adding skilled people like an AI developer for hire, without needing to hire them full-time. It’s a smart way to get expert help for your project without long-term commitments. 

In this article, we’ll explain what ML team extension means, how it works step by step, and why it can be a better choice than hiring in-house employees and how you can scale your AI project.

What Is Machine Learning Team Extension?

Team extension means adding skilled external ML engineers or AI experts to your existing tech team to support your current or upcoming AI project. These experts are usually from specialized AI development companies and work alongside your in-house developers.

Instead of spending a lot of time and money to hire full-time employees, you can quickly hire dedicated machine learning developers to fill the skill gaps and finish your project faster. This way works best when you need help for a short time or when you’re trying out a new AI solution.

Who Is an Artificial Intelligence Specialist?

An Artificial Intelligence specialist is someone who is an expert at building, designing, and managing systems and solving complex problems like humans do. These are called AI developers or AI engineers. They closely work with many AI elements or AI models, machine learning (ML), natural language processing systems, and create many AI tools that can even learn, think, or even talk. Their initial roles are not just coding—they train machines to make decisions based on data. Now in this era, many organizations hire AI developers because these specialists improve customer experience, automate regular tasks, increase efficiency, and get a higher return.

Why Businesses Need AI Experts?

In 2025, technology is changing very quickly changing and the use of AI technology is increasing and the use of AI technology improving their efficiency and increasing their work capability. From an AI agent to AI chatbots that AI will change the operation of companies and business flow

That’s why more companies are trying to hire AI experts or hire artificial intelligence engineers who can build custom AI solutions tailored to their needs. AI helps with things like:

  • Automating customer service
  • Forecasting Sales trends and terms
  • Increase decision-making through the use of data
  • increases product demand
  • Detecting fraud or risks

Without skilled developers, these smart systems can’t function. So, the demand to hire AI engineers or AI developers for hire is growing very fast.

What Can AI Developers For Hire Achieve?

When you hire AI developers, you’re not just getting a coder—you’re getting someone who can help your business grow. These AI engineers for hire can create smart software that learns from users and becomes better over time. Some things an AI developer can build for you:

  • AI chatbot for your website or app
  • Smart data analysis tools that show trends or risks
  • Personalized content engines
  • Generative AI systems like image or text creators
  • Intelligent assistants for internal tasks

Businesses often hire dedicated machine learning developers or even freelance AI developers for flexible projects. Whether you’re building something from scratch or adding AI to your current system, these experts guide your entire development process.

How To Find AI Developers For Hire: Direct Search vs. Remote Platforms

Finding the right talent is crucial for any sector of jobs. Here, finding the right software engineer is crucial for many companies. Finding the right and perfect AI developer for hire depends on various factors like specific project needs, budget, and project timeline. There are two ways you can use: the first one is direct hiring, and the other one is using remote platforms.

Direct Search (In-House Hiring)

  • You can hire AI developers or hire artificial intelligence engineers through job portals, tech events, or referrals.
    This works well for companies that need a full-time expert.
    However, it often comes with a higher cost to hire and a longer recruitment time.

Remote Platforms (Freelance or Offshore Hiring)

  • Many businesses now hire remote AI developers or hire dedicated machine learning developers through platforms like Toptal, Upwork, or AI talent networks.
  • Remote hiring is perfect for short-term or scalable AI projects.
  • You can easily hire generative AI developers, hire AI/ML developers, or freelance AI engineers from anywhere in the world.

Why Ontik Technology Stands Out

If you want trusted and skilled AI developers for hire, then Ontik Technology is a smart option:

  • Their AI and ML engineers are great at solving real-life complex business problems.
  • Ontik’s team can help you build custom AI solutions from the beginning or add them to the systems you already use.
  • Whether you need to hire an AI expert, hire a machine learning developer, or hire an AI engineer, Ontik gives quick and flexible support.
  • It’s a perfect choice for startups and growing businesses that want to work better and faster with the help of AI technologies.

With a flexible way of working and a strong record of success, Ontik is the right partner for any business ready to grow using the power of AI and ML.

How Machine Learning Team Extension Works

Team extension is simple but powerful. Here’s how the process usually goes:

1. Define Your Needs

You start by identifying the skills or expertise you’re missing. Do you need someone who can work on AI model training? Or maybe a generative AI engineer to build content creation tools? List your project requirements and technical goals.

2. Find the Right Talent

Next, you connect with an AI development company or talent platform to hire AI/ML developers. These could be remote AI developers, freelance AI engineers, or full-time dedicated resources.

3. Integration With Your Team

Once selected, the new developers join your current development team. They work as your internal members do — attending meetings, reporting to your managers, and following your development process.

4. Project Execution

The extended team works on specific tasks, like custom AI algorithms, model tuning, or full-scale AI application development. Since they’re already experienced, they adapt fast and focus on delivery.

5. Scaling or Transitioning

Once the project is complete, you can scale the team up or down based on need, something that’s hard to do with full-time employees.

Why Use ML Team Extension?

Here are the main reasons businesses choose to extend their ML team instead of hiring in-house:

Speed

Hiring an AI engineer for hire is much faster than recruiting full-time staff. The market for skilled AI professionals is tight. Team extension lets you hire ML developers in days, not months.

Flexibility

You can hire AI experts only when you need them. Once your AI project is complete, there's no long-term commitment.

Lower Costs

Hiring in-house comes with hidden costs like onboarding, benefits, and tools. With extension, you only pay for what you need. This is perfect for startups that need affordable AI developers.

Access to Global Talent

Team extension opens the door to offshore AI developers and remote AI engineers, giving you access to the best — not just the closest — talent.

Fills Skill Gaps

Not all teams are ready for deep ML tasks. With team extension, you can hire a machine learning expert to guide or complement your existing team’s skills.

When Is Team Extension Better Than Hiring In-House?

Hiring a full-time team isn’t always the best move—especially for fast-growing businesses or startups. Here’s when choosing ML team extension makes more sense:

1. You Need a Quick MVP

Want to launch fast? Don’t spend months hiring full-time staff. You can hire dedicated machine learning developers for a short time and build your MVP quickly. This saves time, money, and gets you to market faster.

2. You Need Specific AI Skills

Need to work on generative AI but your team doesn’t have that skill? No problem. Just hire generative AI developers or a trusted AI developer for hire who already knows the tools and tech.

3. You’re Growing Fast

As your project scales, speed is key. You can’t always wait to recruit and train people. With remote AI developers, you get expert help right away and keep moving without delays.

4. You’re on a Budget

Startups and mid-sized businesses often need results without high costs. With team extension, you can hire artificial intelligence developers from global regions where pricing is more flexible—without losing quality.

5. You’re Just Starting With AI

New to AI? You don’t need a full-time hire. You can test ideas and build small solutions by bringing in a freelance AI developer or AI expert for a short project. It’s low-risk and smart.

Real Use Cases

Startup Launching an AI Chatbot: Lazychat

The Challenge

Customer service teams often face high pressure to respond faster, around the clock. Startups and growing businesses need a large customer support team, so they require a large group of people to respond to customer queries at the same time. A large number of queries and replying to all of the messages at once is not easy. For this, Ontik recognized this gap and set out to build a smart solution—an AI support agent that can deliver real-time responses without human intervention.

The Solution

Ontik designed and developed LazyChat, an AI customer support agent that feels human, works 24/7, and plugs seamlessly into any business website or platform. It’s not just a chatbot—it’s a context-aware AI agent trained on your brand’s unique data.

Their internal team included experienced AI developers, AI engineers for hire, and cloud-ready AI talent who specialize in AI-powered SaaS products. Instead of relying on basic automation, LazyChat was developed using advanced machine learning models and natural language understanding (NLU) to provide accurate, human-like responses.

How It Works

LazyChat can be integrated into any website in minutes. Businesses simply upload documents or link their knowledge base, and the AI agent starts learning immediately. Ontik also offers dedicated AI developer support to help clients integrate AI into their existing apps for a fully branded experience.

Key Features

  • Real-time smart AI chat agent
  • Trained with your own company data
  • Integrates with websites and CRMs
  • No coding needed
  • Built-in analytics and insights
  • Scalable for growing teams

The Results

Lazychat helps lots of e-commerce businesses, many restaurants, and startups reduce customer service workload by up to 70%. These companies solve or handle their large number of queries instantly through the use of Lazychat.

Startups and SaaS companies that once needed to hire artificial intelligence developers for full-scale support platforms now trust LazyChat to automate the heavy lifting—faster and more affordably.

Why Ontik Technology?

Ontik isn’t just a product company—they are experts in AI-powered solutions. Their team of skilled AI developers for hire build not only smart bots but entire AI systems designed to scale. From machine learning engineers to custom AI consultants, Ontik gives clients flexible options to grow with confidence.

Ontik isn’t just a product company—they are experts in AI-powered solutions. Their team of skilled AI developers for hire build not only smart bots but entire AI systems designed to scale. From machine learning engineers to custom AI consultants, Ontik gives clients flexible options to grow with confidence.

If you want to build something like LazyChat or add AI to your existing app, Ontik is the right team to help you create smart, flexible, and quick-to-launch solutions.

Pros and Cons of ML Team Extension

Pros Cons Suggestions (Startups) Suggestions (Mid-level Companies)
Fast access to talent May need onboarding time Use pre-vetted platforms to hire quickly Set up onboarding SOPs and training kits
Scalable team size Less cultural alignment Start with a small team and scale as needed Build culture alignment with regular check-ins
Lower cost than full-time hires Time zone differences (for remote devs) Choose developers from affordable regions Use overlapping time zones for critical roles
Access to global experts Quality varies by vendor Leverage global talent with freelance portals Partner with vendors that have proven case studies
No long-term commitment Some security concerns (if unmanaged) Test with short-term contracts first Implement NDA and secure tools from day one
Quick adaptability to project changes Limited internal knowledge building Use agile methods for flexibility Balance outsourced and in-house knowledge sharing
Focus on core business activities Possible communication delays Focus on product-market fit while outsourcing dev Use project managers to reduce miscommunication

In-House Hiring vs. Team Extension

Factor In-House Hiring ML Team Extension Unique Insight
Speed Slow process, often takes 1–3 months, including interviews, onboarding, and training Fast onboarding (within days or a week), ideal for urgent projects Team extension allows you to start fast, reducing time-to-market significantly
Cost High overall cost (salary, HR operations, office space, tools, benefits) Flexible pricing model, pay-as-you-go, no long-term obligations No need for infrastructure investment; it helps startups save money early
Scalability Hard to scale quickly due to fixed resources and hiring limitations Easily scale team size up or down based on workload or project phase Perfect for AI pilots or rapidly changing tech demands
Expertise May need internal upskilling or training, especially in new AI areas Get direct access to experienced AI engineers and domain experts Ideal if you need niche skills like generative AI or custom NLP models
Control You have complete oversight and decision-making power Shared responsibility, vendor may handle project management or tools Saves internal bandwidth, lets your core team focus on business priorities
Best For Best suited for stable, long-term projects that are central to the business Great for short-term needs, experimental features, or MVPs A practical path for AI adoption without heavy upfront investment

How to Get Started

Here’s how to start with ML team extension:

  1. Define your project scope and what skills are missing.
  2. Choose a trusted AI development company or platform to source talent.
  3. Hire dedicated AI developers that match your project goals.
  4. Set up communication tools and integrate them into your development team.
  5. Track progress like any other in-house task.

Some companies even offer trial periods, so you can test before you commit.

Beyond the Model: How to Build and Grow AI That Truly Works

Here are few important points that how we make that happen:

Data Engineering – Lay the Groundwork
Every strong AI starts with clean, well-organized data. We collect, structure, and prepare the data so your AI has a solid base to learn from.

ML Engineering – Add the Smart Layer
We design and build the logic that makes your AI intelligent. This is where machine learning models come to life and start making real decisions.

GenAI and AI Agents – Make It Talk and Act
We create tools that let your AI interact with users and automate tasks. Whether it’s a chatbot or a virtual assistant, we make AI feel human.

Tuning and Scaling – Take It Live
After your AI is tested and working, we make it even better and prepare it to handle real users. We help turn your idea into a real product that people can use and trust every day.

We don’t just build AI—we make it work for you.

How to Choose the Right ML Team Extension Partner

Choosing the right and perfect team-fit machine learning (ML) team extension partner is crucially important for any organization that needs expert resources. Choose the right team that works collaboratively with your goals and specific needs, and works with your team in the same phase or in the same way. Here are some points that you can follow easily.

Why Ontik Technology Is the Right Choice

Ontik Technology is a trusted ML team extension partner that blends experience, clear communication, and flexible support. Our team in Bangladesh helps companies around the world build smart, scalable ML solutions. We work as an extension of your team—simple, fast, and fully focused on your success.

👉 With Ontik, you don’t just get extra hands—you get the right minds.

Final Thoughts

If you want to grow your AI project but don’t have the full team, an ML team extension is the smart way to do it. You can bring in expert help quickly, without spending too much money or time. This is great for startups and growing companies that need fast results.

Now and in the near future, many companies adopt and use AI technologies that can help scale their business with high ROI. Skilled and talented ML engineers are now more important than ever. But bringing in full-time, in-house experts can cost a lot and isn’t always the smartest option. That’s why team extension is a good option for any business. If you need to hire AI developers, partner with freelance AI engineers, or set up a remote team of AI experts, team extension is a smart and flexible way to do it. lets you move faster, save money, and complete your projects with confidence while getting high ROI.

Ontik Technology gives you the right AI experts who work with your team, understand your goals, and help you build smart AI tools—step by step, the easy way.

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Iman Hossain
Sr.Digital Marketing Executive

Iman Hossain is a dedicated Senior Digital Marketing Executive at Ontik Technology, holding a Finance and Marketing degree. With a stellar academic record, including a prestigious scholarship, he blends theoretical knowledge with practical experience as an SEO professional. His commitment to growth, coupled with proficiency in diverse tools, showcases his dynamic and results-oriented approach.

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