Platform, custom model, or integration play? A structured framework for the decision that defines your AI trajectory.
The question most teams ask wrong
Most Indonesian enterprise teams come to us asking "Should we build or buy this AI feature?" That's the wrong question. The right question is: "What is the half-life of the advantage this feature creates?"
If the advantage lasts 3 months, buy. If it lasts 3 years, build. If you're not sure, run a time-boxed pilot and find out.
The 6 questions
1. Is the data yours?
If the AI feature requires data that only you have — clinical notes, proprietary pricing signals, internal policy documents — the model or fine-tune needs to be yours. Off-the-shelf doesn't know your data. RAG helps, but fine-tuning compounds over time.
2. What is the defensibility window?
In fast-moving categories (copilots, chatbots), the frontier model providers close capability gaps within 12 months. Build only if you can execute a proprietary data flywheel faster than the frontier closes in.