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Shahid Malla

Freelance AI developer

Hire AI Developer: AI Agents, Chatbots, RAG and AI Features

To add AI to your business or product, hire a developer who builds both the AI part and the software, data access and servers around it, and who stays responsible for it after launch. I am Shahid Malla, an AI agent and AI chat developer and a full-stack developer with server and DevOps experience: 13+ years and 900+ projects. I scope, build, review and support the work myself.

Scope my AI project Book a free scoping call

Free scoping call of about 30 minutes · written quote within one business day · two weeks of support after delivery

By Shahid Malla, AI agent and AI chat developer, full-stack developer · Updated

Who should you hire to add AI to your business or product?

Hire a developer who builds the AI part and the software around it, and who still answers for it after launch. The model is the smallest piece of most AI projects. The work is getting the right data to it, limiting what it may do, connecting it to your systems and testing it on real cases.

Searches for an AI developer for hire mostly return marketplaces and agencies. I offer one senior developer who scopes, builds, reviews and supports the work, including the hosting and deployment.

What kinds of AI work can you hire me for?

Most requests fit one of these types:

AI agents

A model that uses tools within your rules, for example reading a ticket, drafting the reply and passing anything uncertain to a person. See AI agent development.

AI chatbots

A website or support chatbot that answers from your content and hands the chat to your team when it does not know. See AI chatbot development.

RAG on your documents

With retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), the AI looks up your pages and PDFs at question time and cites the source. See chatbots that answer from your documents and the RAG guide.

WhatsApp AI chatbots

The same rules on Meta's official WhatsApp Cloud API, with the number kept in your own Meta business account. See WhatsApp AI chatbots.

MCP servers

Tools that let Claude, ChatGPT or your own agent use your CRM, database or API, read-only by default. See MCP server development.

AI features in your Laravel or Next.js app

An assistant, drafting or semantic search added to an app you already run. See AI features in Laravel apps.

AI Mode websites

A site that opens on a conversation, recommends from your catalog and places the order once the visitor confirms. See AI website development.

Software built with Claude Code

A SaaS, CRM or internal tool built with AI coding agents, where I write the spec, set the agents' rules and review every change. See hire a Claude Code developer.

Rescue of an AI-built app

A Lovable, Bolt, Replit, v0 or Cursor app that breaks or leaks data gets a written audit, security fixes, tests and a handover. See vibe-coded app rescue.

Sometimes the right answer is a plain integration through automation development, which costs less.

What should you check before you hire an AI developer?

Ask how the developer controls the AI, not only what it does in a demo:

QuestionA good answer covers
What live work is yours, and what was your part?Links you can open, with ownership stated
How will you test it?Your real questions or tasks, run before launch and after every change
What can it do without a person approving?A written list; changes to money or accounts need a confirmation
Where do our data and keys go?Business API terms, least-privilege credentials, no secrets in prompts or code
What will it cost to run each month?An estimate from your volume, billed to your account, with a spending cap
Who maintains it after launch?A support period and a handover list
When would you tell us not to build it?When a ready-made tool or a simple integration is cheaper

An accuracy rate promised before anyone has seen your data is a warning sign; it can only be measured in a pilot.

Should you hire a freelance AI developer, an agency or an in-house engineer?

Hire a freelancer for a defined project one person should own, an agency when you need several specialists at once, and an in-house engineer when AI work is continuous and central to your product.

OptionSuitsWatch for
Freelance AI developerA chatbot, agent or AI feature with a clear scopeOne person's availability; ask for the repository, notes and a support period
AgencyLarge projects needing designers, mobile and data specialists in parallelWho actually writes the code, and what coordination costs
In-house engineerAI that is core to the product and changes weeklyHiring time, and a full salary for work that may not fill the role

Upwork and Fiverr are where you find and pay a freelancer; I take work there too. For ongoing work, the monthly developer retainer sits in between. More in AI chatbot development company vs freelancer.

What does it cost to hire an AI developer?

My AI developer hourly rate is $55 to $65. For a fixed price, a free scoping call of about 30 minutes comes first, and the written quote follows within one business day.

Model and API usage, for example from OpenAI or Anthropic, is billed by the provider to your own account, with a monthly spending cap I set; hosting works the same way. The Claude Code subscription I build with is my own cost. The build price moves with the number of systems the AI connects to, whether it changes data or only reads it, and how much your documents need cleaning. Token-cost examples are in the AI agent and chatbot cost guide.

How do I keep an AI project safe from scoping to launch?

Staging first, tests on your own cases and the narrowest access that works. These rules apply to every project:

  • Scope in writing: what the AI may do alone, what needs a person's confirmation and what is out of scope.
  • Staging and tests: everything is built on a staging copy with test data. I build with Claude Code and review every change myself, and automated tests plus your real questions, including prompt injection attempts, run on each change.
  • Least privilege: read-only credentials by default, writes behind a confirmation, and no passwords, card data or API keys in prompts.
  • Business API terms: OpenAI's API data page says data sent to its API "is not used to train or improve OpenAI models (unless you explicitly opt in to share data with us)", and Anthropic's Commercial Terms say "Anthropic may not train models on Customer Content from Services." Both read on 26 October 2026.

What AI work can you check before hiring me?

Five AI projects, each with my role stated. Four belong to businesses I own or work for:

  • MagizAI (my own product; I am founder and CEO): an AI chatbot and live chat for websites that answers from the site's own pages and files, in the visitor's language; a person on the team can take over any chat. Its site lists a WhatsApp chatbot, and a free WHMCS addon module is available. Live at magiz.ai.
  • ElySpace Ask AI (my employer's product; I built it as CTO): an AI Mode front door that opens on "What are you looking for?", recommends hosting or domains at live prices and places the order; payment stays a separate step. Live at elyspace.com/ask-ai, marked as a preview.
  • ElyAgents (my own product): multi-tenant business software with AI features for pharmacies, schools and other industries, with WhatsApp Cloud API, Stripe, Razorpay and Meta Lead Ads integrations. Live at elyagents.com.
  • OnDemand Psychiatry (a two-month contract): as a contract AI engineer, I rebuilt the AI copilot of this clinical decision-support platform for psychiatry.
  • JK Tour CRM (an ElySpace product; I am CTO): a Laravel travel CRM whose AI assistant can draft itineraries using the customer's own API key.

Non-AI client work abroad: Chargewise, a Next.js store for a company shipping across the United States and Canada; Krunus, a UK hosting provider's website; and CornerHost, an Australian managed WordPress host's website.

What AI work do I not take on?

  • Training new models or machine learning research.
  • Accuracy or deflection rates promised before a pilot on your data.
  • Agents that move money, delete records or change accounts without a person confirming.
  • Chatbots that pretend to be human, give the public medical or legal advice, or send mass unsolicited messages.
  • Scraping against a site's terms, fake reviews or impersonation.
  • A custom build where a ready-made product, even someone else's, costs less. I say so on the call.

Disclosure: I am an independent developer, not affiliated with, certified by or endorsed by OpenAI or Anthropic. ChatGPT is a product of OpenAI and Claude is a trademark of Anthropic. I am CTO at ElySpace, a freelance developer for Marmaids LLC, and founder of WHMCSPilot and MagizAI.

Who this is for

  • Founders who want an AI feature in their product and one developer accountable for it from scoping to support
  • Startups that want to hire an AI engineer for a defined piece of work before committing to a full-time role
  • Companies in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Europe that want AI agents or chatbots working with the tools they already use
  • Teams that are not sure whether they need a chatbot, an agent, an MCP server or a plain integration
  • Owners of an AI-built prototype that now needs a developer to make it safe to run

What is included

  • A free scoping call of about 30 minutes, then a written scope and fixed quote within one business day, including what is left out
  • A recommendation of the smallest kind of AI work that solves the problem, including when a ready-made tool or a plain integration costs less
  • A build on staging with test data, before anything touches production
  • A test set of your real questions or tasks, run before launch and after every change
  • Model accounts and API keys in your name, with a monthly spending cap
  • Code in your repository, deployment notes, a walkthrough call and two weeks of support after delivery

How the work runs

  1. 1

    Scoping call

    About 30 minutes on the problem, the systems involved, your data and who will use the result. A written scope and fixed quote follow within one business day.

  2. 2

    Choose the approach

    Chatbot, agent, MCP server, AI feature or a plain integration. I recommend the smallest option that does the job and write down why.

  3. 3

    Set up data and access

    Your documents and a staging copy, with credentials limited to what each part needs, read-only by default. Secrets stay out of prompts and out of the repository.

  4. 4

    Build and test on staging

    I build with Claude Code and review every change myself. Automated tests and your test questions run on each change, and you get a daily update.

  5. 5

    Pilot with your team

    A few of your staff use it on real cases first. We adjust the rules and the hand-off points before customers see it.

  6. 6

    Launch and hand over

    Production deployment, spending caps on your model accounts, the repository and notes, a walkthrough and two weeks of support.

Recent work

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Guides on this topic

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Frequently asked questions

What does an AI developer do?

An AI developer builds software that uses an AI model, such as a large language model from OpenAI or Anthropic, to answer questions, draft text or take actions inside a business system. Most of the job is the software around the model: getting the right data to it, limiting what it may do, connecting it to your tools, testing it on real cases and keeping running costs under control.

Do I need an AI engineer who trains models?

Most businesses do not. Adding a chatbot, an agent or an AI feature to a product means building on models that already exist, through their APIs, and grounding them in your own data. I do not train new models. If your project needs a custom model trained on large datasets, you need a machine learning team, and I will say so on the scoping call.

Are you certified by or partnered with OpenAI or Anthropic?

No. I am an independent developer who builds with the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs and with Claude Code. I am not affiliated with, certified by or endorsed by OpenAI or Anthropic. I choose the model for each project by testing it on your own questions, not by brand.

Can a remote AI developer work in our time zone?

Yes. I work in India Standard Time (UTC+5:30) and arrange overlap hours with your time zone when a project needs live conversation. The daily update arrives in the channel you choose, so you do not need to be online when I am.

Who owns the code, the prompts and the accounts?

Ownership of custom code is agreed in writing in the quote before work starts. Model provider accounts, API keys and hosting are opened in your company's name, so the running system and its bills stay with you. The repository, prompts, test set and deployment notes are handed over at the end, so another developer can continue the work.

Can you work with our existing developers?

Yes. I start by reading the code and running its tests, then deliver work as normal pull requests your team can review. If your developers want to keep building with AI coding tools, I can set up Claude Code for your repository, as described on the Claude Code developer page.

Can we start with a small pilot?

Yes, and I usually suggest it. A first phase covers one use case, such as one category of support questions or one internal task, so you see real answers and real running costs before paying for the full build.

How do I hire you?

Directly, through the project form, a booked call or email, and you deal with me from the first call to the handover. You can also hire me on Fiverr or Upwork for the same work if you prefer a marketplace's payment protection. The options are at the bottom of this page.

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Ready to talk about your project?

You deal with me personally from the first message to the handover. Choose the way that suits you; I reply within one business day.