How to decide: the 4 dimensions
Speed: Agencies bring patterns and teams that launch in weeks. In-house takes months to hire and align.
Cost: Agencies are OPEX; in-house is salary, benefits, tooling, and retention. Hybrid splits risk.
Control/IP: In-house wins for core IP. Agencies fit best for operations, support, and go-to-market automation.
Risk: Agencies with guardrails reduce early mistakes; in-house may learn by trial and error.
When an agency makes sense
- You need outcomes in weeks (support deflection, lead response, reporting).
- You don’t have specialized AI/automation talent yet.
- You want baked-in guardrails and runbooks to satisfy security/compliance.
When in-house is the right move
- AI is core to your product or defensibility.
- You have budget and hiring muscle for ML/ops talent.
- You’re ready to own infra, safety, and continuous improvement.
Hybrid: best of both
Ship the first 2–3 use cases with an agency to prove ROI and create templates. Hire selectively while the agency builds. Transition over 60–90 days with training and paired delivery.
Cost and time snapshots
- Agency-led launch: 2–6x faster; scoped projects from weeks to a few months.
- In-house hires: 2–3 FTEs often $250k–$450k/year fully loaded, plus tooling.
- Hybrid: Use agency playbooks, then taper as internal team ramps.
How Zyphh works with your team
- We deliver production workflows with logging, runbooks, and training.
- We co-design the operating model: owners, SLAs, and escalation.
- We help interview and onboard internal hires if you’re going hybrid.
Bias alert: we’re an agency. But we’ll tell you when in-house wins—so you don’t waste time or budget.
Next step: compare options on one page
We’ll map your use cases to three paths—agency, hybrid, in-house—with cost, time, and risk spelled out. Then you choose.
FAQ
Can you help build in-house?
Yes. We’ll define roles, interview, and transition knowledge while delivering live systems.
Do you white-label IP?
No. We build on your stack with your ownership. Templates stay with you.
What about security?
We design with refusal rules, private/retrieval patterns, and audit logs. We align with your compliance team.
How do you avoid dependency?
Runbooks, training, and paired delivery ensure your team can own it. We stay on-call if you want.