# Fig vs. AI development agencies

> Enterprise-grade AI systems on one connected platform.

- Canonical: https://hellofig.io/alternatives/ai-development-agencies
- All comparisons: https://hellofig.io/alternatives.md
- About Fig: https://hellofig.io/fig.md

**In short.** AI development agencies and dev shops build custom AI projects one engagement at a time, each with its own code, integrations and security controls, handed over at delivery, with maintenance and every new use case billed as new work. Fig builds every system on CosmOS, its own enterprise-grade platform: connected to 1,000+ tools and a live digital twin of the business, with single sign-on, SCIM provisioning, approval gates and a full audit trail built in, every frontier and open-weight model, and systems that keep improving after launch, measured against a baseline.

Dev shops and AI agencies build custom projects one at a time, each with its own code, integrations and controls, and hand them over at the end. Fig builds every system on CosmOS, one enterprise-grade platform connected to the whole business, so each new system starts from what the last one built and keeps improving after launch.

## At a glance

| | Fig | AI development agencies |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Enterprise-grade AI systems running in production on CosmOS, Fig's own platform. | Partial: Custom code written for one project and handed over at delivery. |
| Connected to the business | Every system shares 1,000+ connected tools and a live digital twin of the business. | Partial: Integrations built per project, for the systems that project needs. |
| Each new use case | Starts from the same connections, digital twin, evaluations and governance. | Partial: A new project, a new estimate and a new build. |
| Security & governance | Built into the platform: SSO (SAML and OIDC), SCIM 2.0, scoped roles, approval gates, full audit trail and export, in your own cloud. | Partial: Specified, built and reviewed one project at a time. |
| Quality | Every system ships on one tested platform, with evaluations, monitoring and approval gates. | Partial: Depends on the team staffed on each project. |
| After go-live | Runs on CosmOS and keeps improving, measured monthly against the baseline. | Partial: Handed over at delivery; maintenance is a separate retainer or a new project. |
| Pricing | Usage-based platform with no per-seat licenses; transformation work scoped with each customer. | Partial: Hourly or fixed bid per project, plus separate model and hosting bills. |

## Pricing

- **Fig:** Usage-based with no per-seat licenses: everyone in the organization can use Fig, and the bill follows the work done, with budgets and spend rules for every team. Strategy, forward deployed engineering and Fig Academy are scoped with each customer.
- **AI development agencies:** Agencies bill hourly or by fixed bid for each project. Maintenance, changes and every new use case are further work orders, and model and hosting costs are billed separately.

Fig's platform has one usage meter for models, agents and connectors, and every new system runs on it.

## Connected to the whole business

An agency builds each project with its own code, integrations and data pipelines, sized to that project's scope, so every system carries its own connections and its own copy of the data. Every system on CosmOS shares 1,000+ connected tools and a live digital twin of the records, rules and decisions behind the business, with each source's permissions intact.

## Enterprise-grade from the first release

In a project build, security is specified, built and reviewed one project at a time. CosmOS ships it with every system: single sign-on with SAML and OIDC, SCIM provisioning, scoped roles, approval gates before consequential actions, break-glass re-authentication and a full audit trail with export, running in the company's own cloud or Fig's.

## Built to scale past the pilot

Gartner expects more than 40% of agentic AI projects to be canceled by the end of 2027, citing escalating costs, unclear business value and inadequate risk controls. Fig's systems ship on one tested platform with evaluations, monitoring and approval gates, are tuned continuously after launch, and are measured monthly against the baseline set in the first audit. Each new system reuses what the last one built.

## Every model, and models of your own

Project code is wired to the models chosen when it was written. Fig routes each task to the best model across every frontier lab and the best open-weight models, and trains models on the company's own data with supervised fine-tuning, preference tuning, reinforcement learning and distillation. The company keeps the weights.

## Who Fig is for

Companies that want enterprise-grade AI systems on one connected platform, where every new system builds on the last, runs under one set of security controls and keeps improving after launch.

## Questions

### What is the difference between Fig and an AI development agency?

An agency builds each AI project as custom code with its own integrations and security, hands it over at delivery, and bills maintenance and new use cases as new work. Fig builds every system on CosmOS, one enterprise-grade platform connected to the whole business, where each new system starts from what the last one built and keeps improving after launch.

### Why build on a platform instead of commissioning a custom build?

A custom build solves one problem with its own code, connections and controls. On CosmOS, every system shares the same connected tools, digital twin, models and governance, so new systems reach production faster and run under one set of security controls.

### Is Fig enterprise-grade?

Yes. CosmOS ships with single sign-on (SAML and OIDC), SCIM 2.0 provisioning, scoped roles, approval gates before consequential actions, break-glass re-authentication and a full audit trail with export, and it runs in your own cloud account or Fig's.

### Who maintains the systems Fig builds?

They run on CosmOS. Fig tunes models and workflows continuously after launch and measures each system monthly against the baseline set in the first audit, and your team can extend them on the same platform.

### Which AI models does Fig use?

Every lab's newest frontier models and the best open-weight models, routed to the right one for each task, plus models Fig trains on the company's own data.