Writing on AI engineering & hiring
Practical, sourced answers to the questions clients actually ask — what AI development costs, which stack to pick, and how the engineering really works. Written by Naman Gundaniya, updated as the tools change.
How to Build an AI Agent with MCP and Claude
A practical architecture guide to building AI agents with the Model Context Protocol and Claude: tools, memory, the agent loop, evals and guardrails.
- AI Agents
- MCP
- Claude
- Architecture
Freelance AI Engineer vs Agency: Cost, Speed, and When Each Wins
An honest comparison of hiring a freelance AI engineer versus an agency in 2026 — cost structure, decision speed, accountability, and when each is right.
- Hiring
- Freelance
- Agency
- AI Development
Vapi vs Retell vs ElevenLabs: Choosing a Voice AI Stack in 2026
Vapi for developer flexibility, Retell for production call operations, ElevenLabs for voice quality. How the three voice AI platforms compare in 2026.
- Voice AI
- Vapi
- Retell
- ElevenLabs
RAG vs Fine-Tuning: Which Does Your Product Actually Need?
RAG is the right first choice for roughly 80% of enterprise LLM use cases. When fine-tuning earns its place, when RAG wins, and when you need both.
- RAG
- Fine-Tuning
- LLM
- AI Architecture
How Much Does It Cost to Hire an AI Developer in 2026?
AI developer rates in 2026: US $90–$200/hr, Canada $75–$165/hr, India $20–$75/hr. What chatbots, agents and automation projects actually cost, and why.
- Hiring
- AI Development
- Pricing
- Freelance