Not next month. Now.
Maybe you need someone to integrate GPT into your product. Build a RAG pipeline. Or automate workflows with AI tools.
The problem? You have no idea where to start looking.
I’ve spent months digging through hiring data, founder communities, and real-world examples to figure out where people are actually finding AI talent.
Not the corporate blog post answers. The real ones.
Here are the six places people hire AI engineers, what you’ll find there, and which one might work best for your situation.
1. HireTalent.ph
Let me be direct about why this should be your first stop.
HireTalent.ph is built specifically for hiring Filipino remote workers with AI and automation skills. Not freelancers bouncing between gigs.
In here you’ll find a rich talent pool of AI engineers, data engineers, and automation specialists who can integrate LLMs into your products, build RAG systems, and handle MLOps work.
Rates typically range from $5 an hour depending on experience level.
The platform uses AI to analyze all applicants for your job posting and you can create trial tasks—paid or unpaid—to test candidate skills before committing to a hire.
2. Upwork and General Freelance Marketplaces
Let’s talk about the platforms everyone knows.
Upwork, Guru, Freelancer these have massive pools as well. Everything from prompt engineers charging $25/hour to senior ML engineers at $150/hour.
The range is huge. AI engineer profiles from every country imaginable.
But you’ll spend a lot of time filtering. Most profiles are inflated. “AI engineer” might mean someone who took a course last month. Or it might mean someone who built production ML systems at Google.
You can’t tell from the profile.
3. India
India has been doing offshoring for decades.
Large engineering base. Long ML and data science history. Established tech hubs in Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune.
Time zone overlap is limited if you’re US-based (better for UK). India shines for complex ML systems and data science at scale.
But for practical AI integration work, you’re often paying premium rates.
4. Latin America
Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia have growing AI ecosystems.
Strong time zone overlap with the US. Cultural alignment with Western work styles. Rising startup scenes focused on AI.
You’ll find AI engineers with good English, reasonable rates (30-50% below US), and availability during US business hours.
But the talent pool is smaller than India or the Philippines but growing fast.
You’ll pay more than the Philippines but get better time zone alignment if you’re US-based.
6. Eastern Europe
Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and other Eastern European countries have deep technical talent.
Strong mathematical and engineering education systems. Experience with complex backend systems and ML infrastructure.
Rates are moderate compared to Western Europe but rising.
Top talent is increasingly closer to EU market rates. Time zone overlap is good for UK companies, limited for the US west coast, challenging for Australia.
Eastern Europe has earned its reputation for high-quality engineering. But you’re not getting the cost arbitrage you might expect, especially for senior roles.
And finding available talent can take time. The best engineers are in high demand across European companies.
Why the Philippines Makes Sense for Most AI Hiring
Let me be specific about the advantages.
Cost arbitrage that’s real: $5 to $8 /hour for AI and automation work versus $100-$200/hour in Western markets.
English fluency without the premium: You’re not paying Latin American rates for English communication.
Time zone flexibility: Perfect for Australian companies. Reasonable overlap for UK. Early morning or late evening overlap for US teams, which works fine for async-first companies.
AI-enabled operations focus: This is the key differentiator. Philippine talent excels at practical AI integration and automation rather than pure research.
How to Actually Evaluate AI Engineer Candidates
Regardless of where you hire from, here’s what works.
Pre-screen with specific questions: Ask about a past project integrating an LLM into an app. How did they handle evaluation? What did they do when the model hallucinated? Specific, grounded answers are green flags.
Run a trial task: Give them a small dataset or some internal docs. Ask them to build an endpoint or script that answers questions using an LLM and retrieval. Time-box it to a few days and pay a fixed fee.
This surfaces real skills fast.
Review actual code: Have someone technical look at their repo for tests, logging, error handling, and configuration management. Real AI work lives inside broader software systems, not just notebooks.
Test async communication: For Philippine candidates specifically, English is usually strong. But explicitly test documentation habits and async communication patterns. These matter enormously for remote AI work.
The Actual Play for Your Business
Here’s my recommendation.
Start with HireTalent.ph if you’re looking for practical AI integration work, automation, or data engineering.
Post your job, let the AI analysis surface strong candidates, run trial tasks with your top picks.
You’ll likely find someone who can deliver 80% of what you need at 30-50% of the cost you’d pay elsewhere.
For that remaining 20% the complex ML architecture, the novel algorithm design, the frontier research work hire a senior consultant from India, Eastern Europe, or the US for occasional guidance.
That hybrid approach works better than trying to hire one expensive person who can do everything.
Most businesses overcomplicate their AI hiring. They think they need someone with a PhD and publications.
What they actually need is someone who can ship AI features that work and maintain them reliably.
The Philippines has those people. HireTalent.ph makes it easy to find them.
That’s the real opportunity here.
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