$30,000 Lost on a Mismatched Hire
A Sydney fintech hired a “Senior AI Developer” without technical testing. After 90 days of missed deadlines and confusion, the role was terminated.
The Challenge
A leading Australian enterprise approached AYORA after experiencing a costly hiring mistake. The company had onboarded an AI engineer through a traditional recruiter, only to discover that the candidate lacked the depth of experience needed to deploy production-grade models. Within three months, the company had spent over $30,000 on salary, onboarding, and infrastructure — with no tangible output.
The client’s leadership team realised the issue was not simply a bad hire. It was a hiring process that lacked the precision and technical assessment needed for complex AI roles.
Our Solution
AYORA began by conducting a full role diagnostic. We identified gaps in how the company defined its AI requirements and built a refined profile that focused on applied experience rather than academic credentials alone.
We introduced our three-stage evaluation process, including:
Live technical testing to validate real-world problem-solving.
Compatibility scoring to assess team fit and communication.
AI-enhanced vetting to flag potential mismatches early.
Within two weeks, we presented a shortlist of candidates who had both the technical expertise and business understanding to deliver measurable outcomes.
The Result
The company hired a new senior AI engineer through AYORA, who successfully optimised their model deployment process and cut training time by 40% within the first quarter. The client has since shifted all AI recruitment efforts to AYORA, citing confidence in our ability to balance technical depth with organisational fit.