The machine learning market is expected to reach $20.83B by 2024 growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 42,8%. Such growth rates translate into higher demand for AI and machine learning experts. You might have already encountered problems finding the right people for the job; so, let’s see how you can outsource machine learning projects to fill your talent pool fast and easy.
The global demand for AI and machine learning experts is growing rapidly, and in many countries, there already is a huge shortage of experts in the AI domain. There simply aren’t enough qualified people, and increasing investment in machine learning pushes the industry leaders to look for alternatives to traditional in-house hiring. That is where machine learning outsourcing can help you hire an entire team of developers faster and easier.
Shortage of machine learning talent in the US
The number of the available AI and machine learning experts does not catch up to the growing demand across the globe. According to LinkedIn, there are 73,000+ jobs in the US that list machine learning expertise as one of the required skills. At the same time, there are 23,000 AI experts in the country.
Such a discrepancy between the talent demand and supply pushes organizations to look for alternative ways to fill their jobs. The race for AI and machine learning talent is on and the industry leaders go to great lengths to hire top experts in the AI domain. Machine learning outsourcing can offer a solution to a talent shortage problem.
The problem the US industry leaders are facing is prevalent across the globe; the same thing happens in most western countries – the lack of experienced engineers is critical. At the same time, there is a large number of experts and IT outsourcing destinations in Eastern Europe. If you want to outsource machine learning projects to remote teams, Eastern Europe is your go-to destination.
Why outsourcing to Ukraine is the way to go
Ukraine is Eastern Europe’s IT powerhouse with a total talent pool of over 200,000 engineers and more than 30,000 AI and machine learning outsource experts. The number of engineers alone is a good reason to look in that direction as you will be able to find a reliable IT outstaffing partner that will help you hire an entire team of machine learning experts.
Apart from being the largest talent pool in the region, the country has a number of benefits to offer to anyone looking to outsource machine learning projects.
An abundance of reliable software development companies
There are more than 200,000 software engineers in Ukraine distributed among 1,600+ software development companies. About 10% of those companies offer expertise in AI and machine learning domains, which leaves you with a wide selection of potential partners. Ukraine is Central Europe’s largest IT hub, and the country solidifies this status not just with the sheer number of tech experts but with the quality of their services as well.
Strong STEM education
Ukraine is known for the quality and accessibility of higher education, and there are many universities across the country that offer Master’s programs in Computer Science, which includes AI and machine learning specializations. Each year, thousands of young experts graduate from the universities to later pass training and become developers in one of many software development companies across the country.
Growing AI and machine learning expertise
AI and machine learning are the fastest-growing areas of expertise among Ukrainian software developers. More than a quarter of projects Ukrainian companies work with are related to machine learning expertise, followed closely by IoT projects. Ukrainian developers have been working on machine learning projects for years, which helped them build profound expertise in that domain.
Cultural and geographic proximity
Ukraine is a European country where people share all of the western values and have a similar approach to their professional duties. You can rely on professionalism and genuine care for your project, and most importantly, you can count on mutual understanding between you and your development partner.
An important note here is that a vast majority of Ukrainian developers have a good command of English, which is essential for maintaining efficient cooperation between you and the team.
Ukraine offers a rather favorable location too. Thanks to its geographic proximity to most European capitals, you can easily travel to this country to meet your potential partners in person if you want. This also means that there won’t be a significant time gap between you and your team. The flexible working schedule offered by most companies also allows for comfortable uninterrupted communication with the team.
How to choose the best partner for machine learning outsourcing
With a large number of options comes the difficult task of picking the right partner for your next project. If you want to outsource machine learning projects, you need to know who your potential partners are, what kinds of services they offer, what reputation they have, and whether they can deliver the results you expect.
Check their portfolio and ML projects track record
The first thing to do to narrow down your list of potential partners is to go to the rating platforms like Clutch and filter companies by expertise and rating. Select the AI and machine learning expertise and select the companies with the highest rating. That way, you will already narrow your search down to just a couple of dozen companies.
Once you have your list shortened to just a handful of top-rated software development companies, check their track record with AI and machine learning projects. Make sure your potential vendor has the actual experience working on AI and ML projects.
Choose mid-sized and large companies
The scope of your project may change over time, you might want to add new features to the product, or expand its functionality. As the scope of your project changes, so does the composition of your team, and you want to be sure your potential vendor has a sufficient talent pool to accommodate your changing needs.
Partnering with smaller companies, you might find it rather challenging and time consuming to scale your team up. Larger companies, however, can scale their development teams much faster. With a vast talent pool, your potential vendor can guarantee scalable teams for outsourced machine learning projects.
One-stop-shop development
Some software development companies focus on just a couple of aspects of the entire development process while the others can deliver full-cycle solutions to drive your project from the ideation stage and up to market launch. Working with a full-cycle partner is more convenient as you will have all the development stages covered by a single team of developers.
Full-cycle machine learning outsourcing allows you to have all the project-related operations in one place, which maximizes the efficiency of communication, optimizes spending, reduces redundant managerial effort, and simply makes the project delivery process more convenient for you and your dedicated development team. This might also include after-development support and maintenance for keeping your product healthy and fully functional for a long period of time.
Security
Whenever you partner with the machine learning outsource team, you will inevitably share some of your sensitive business data with them. You will need a partner who adheres to all the relevant security standards like PCI DSS and ISO 27001 and guarantees total protection of your sensitive data.
Featured case study
Working with clients who lead innovation in their industry, it is essential for us to come up with a comprehensive set of solutions that would help the client stay on top of the competition. The N-iX team worked with a German A-list tech supplier with 700+ warehouses around the world to automate manual labor, streamline inventory management, create a mobile app for warehouse operators, and develop an embedded Computer Vision system that allows for no-touch tracking of goods.
Machine learning has been used extensively throughout this project, especially for the Computer Vision system we have developed. Machine learning is an essential part of any Computer Vision system as the AI experts have to basically teach the system to recognize certain objects. For this particular project, our machine learning experts have developed a system capable of the following features:
- Pallet detection
- Label recognition
- Box counting
- Damage detection
- Fuzzy information matching
The machine learning solutions we’ve implemented helped the client to reduce the amount of human labor across all the warehouses, which allowed the client to cut costs and streamline the warehouse operations.
Machine learning can be implemented under different circumstances solving a number of business challenges. AI is becoming a huge leverage across industry verticals and timely adoption of modern technology is the key to beating the competition and upkeep a healthy development and evolution of your business.
Why choose N-iX for your next ML project?
N-iX is a tech powerhouse of the industry’s best machine learning experts with strong AI and ML expertise proven through numerous projects. Here’s why you should consider N-iX as your partner for your next machine learning project:
- We are a strong tech community of 2,000+ experts offering expertise in AI, machine learning, Big Data, BI, DevOps, and more.
- We have a proven track record of successfully outsourced machine learning projects across different industries and countries.
- N-iX is a reliable tech partner with industry recognition from CRN’s Fast Growth 150, the UK IT Industry Awards, IAOP Global Outsourcing 100, and more.
- We offer an Agile approach to our projects, adapt to the needs of our clients, and establish a fluent line of communication and streamlined cooperation within the teams.
- We work with industry leaders, tech giants, and enterprise clients from the UK, Europe, and North America.
Final thoughts
The race for the industry’s best machine learning talent is on, and the talent pools of the US and Western European countries are running dry. For that reason, the idea to outsource machine learning projects to other countries becomes more attractive to many industry leaders. Fortunately, you have an option of outsourcing machine learning projects to one of the best software development partners and getting access to some of the industry’s best machine learning experts fast and easy.
