How to choose an AI development agency: 12 questions to ask before you sign
To choose an AI development agency, ask every candidate the same twelve questions about code review, ownership, process and support, and compare the answers side by side. Ownership comes first, review and testing second, price last. This guide gives you the questions, what a good answer sounds like and the warning sign for each.
By cklicky.com · Published · Updated
The short answer
Choose an AI development agency the way you would choose any professional: by how it answers specific questions, not by its website. The twelve questions below cover the four things that decide how a project goes: the quality of the code, who owns it, how the work is run and what happens after launch.
Put the same questions to every agency you talk to, including us, and compare the answers side by side. A capable agency will answer all twelve in a single call.
Before you talk to anyone
Two things on your side make every conversation more useful:
- Two sentences on the product: who it is for, and the one thing it must let them do.
- A decision on which kind of provider you need. A company that builds software with AI is not the same as one that builds AI models. Our AI software development services page explains the difference.
Code quality and security
1. Who reviews the code that the AI writes?
A good answer: A named senior engineer reads every change before it is merged, and login, payments and access rules are read line by line.
A warning sign: "The AI checks its own work", or review described as an occasional spot check.
2. What is covered by automated tests?
A good answer: At least sign-up, payment and the core action, including tests that try to do what should be forbidden.
A warning sign: Tests "will be added later", or only manual clicking before release.
3. How do you handle secrets and customer data?
A good answer: Keys exist only on servers, the code is scanned for leaked secrets, and access to production data is limited to the people who need it.
A warning sign: Vague reassurance, or surprise at the question. Broken access control tops the OWASP Top 10 for 2025, so a serious team has a ready answer.
Ownership
4. Where does the code live during the project?
A good answer: In a repository in your own account, from the first commit.
A warning sign: In the agency's account, to be "handed over at the end".
5. What do I own if we stop halfway?
A good answer: Everything produced so far: code, history, tests and documentation, without conditions.
A warning sign: Ownership that depends on finishing the project or on a final payment for work already paid.
6. Whose accounts are the hosting, database and app stores in?
A good answer: Yours. The agency is added as a collaborator.
A warning sign: The agency's, which means your product cannot run without them.
How the work is run
7. How often will I see working software?
A good answer: Every week, on a real address or a test build on your phone.
A warning sign: Status reports instead of software, or a first look "near the end".
8. What happens when I want to change the scope?
A good answer: A clear rule: swap one thing for another freely, and get an estimate before anything is added.
A warning sign: "We are flexible", with no rule. Flexibility without a rule becomes a dispute about the bill.
9. Who will I actually talk to?
A good answer: One point of contact who works on the product and can answer technical questions.
A warning sign: A salesperson before signing and a stranger afterwards.
Launch and afterwards
10. What exactly is delivered at launch?
A good answer: A product running in production with monitoring and backups, plus documentation that lets another developer take over.
A warning sign: "The code", with nothing about deployment, monitoring or documentation.
11. What happens when a bug is found after launch?
A good answer: Support terms that are written down before the project starts.
A warning sign: Promises of goodwill, with nothing in writing.
12. What kind of project would you turn down?
A good answer: A specific list. An agency that knows its limits is more reliable inside them.
A warning sign: "We can build anything."
Comparing the answers
Write each agency's answers in one table, one row per question. Then weigh them in this order:
- Ownership first (4 to 6). A poor answer here is a reason to walk away, because it cannot be repaired later.
- Review and tests next (1 to 3). These decide whether the product is safe to run.
- Process after that (7 to 9). These decide how pleasant the project will be.
- Price last. An estimate only means something next to a written scope, so compare scopes before you compare figures.
A lower estimate for a scope that leaves out testing, deployment or documentation is not cheaper. It is a different, smaller project.
What to get in writing
We are engineers, not lawyers, so take legal advice on the contract itself. As a practical minimum, these points should be on paper before work starts:
- The scope: what will be built, and what is explicitly left out.
- The transfer of intellectual property to you, and when it takes effect.
- Where the code and the accounts live.
- How changes to the scope are handled and estimated.
- What "done" means: how you accept the work.
- Support after launch, and confidentiality.
A small first project beats any interview
If you are still unsure after the calls, start small. A two-week first version, an audit of an existing prototype or a single well-defined feature shows you how an agency really works: how it communicates, what its code looks like and whether the weekly demo happens.
Our own answers to these questions are on the how we work page and in the FAQ. If you would like to put them to us directly, book a call or write through the contact form.
Sources
Every external claim in this article links to its source. Checked in November 2026.