If you are looking to do a POC and if you have access to a good tech team, it is not a bad idea to try in-house. However, have a cap on the number of resources and time, as these kind of experimentation projects might go on forever. The ideal duration for a POC is 1 to 2 months. In-house development has the following advantages:
- You will get a closer look at the problem you are trying to solve, and the associated complexities.
- You will get a better idea on the approximate time and cost estimate for the project implementation
- In-house POCs are lower on cost (in case you are tight on time and resources allocated)
However, be very clear on the expectations of the in-house team. In general, the quality of the output would be low, because of the team’s in-experience and limited information available online.
For a full-scale project, the best way to go about is through an external vendor in collaboration with the in-house team. The advantages of going with the external vendor are:
- Experience doing multiple projects
- Access to the right set of tools
Conversational AI bots are generally not out of the box solutions. They involve integrations with multiple enterprise systems. Involving the in-house IT team as a key stakeholder in the project is very important. The concerns which the IT teams have are about data security and data duplication. If the IT team works on the POC, they would get a better idea of the challenges and can help the vendor better.