By Harley Trung, Co-founder & Chief AI Officer at CoderPush. We are one of the vendors you might evaluate, so this guide includes checks you can run on us too.
Most vendor guides tell you what to look for. This one also tells you how to check it. In 2026 almost every software company in Vietnam calls itself an AI company. The difference shows up in evidence: live systems, eval sets, certificates you can verify, and contract terms.
If you are earlier in the process, deciding whether to hire in Vietnam at all or choosing between freelancers, staffing agencies and a long-term partner, start with our guide to hiring AI engineers in Vietnam. For budget ranges, see the AI engineer rate card.
The checklist: claim, evidence and how to verify it
| # | What to check | Evidence to ask for | How to verify it yourself |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Production AI, not demos | One system live with real users, with a usage or quality metric after launch | Ask for a reference call with that client, and check that the product is public or ask to see production monitoring |
| 2 | Eval and release discipline | A sample eval set, the pass bar, and an example of a release an eval blocked | Ask them to walk through it live; a team that does this daily won't need to prepare |
| 3 | Data boundaries | An architecture diagram showing what data the model sees, where it is stored and what is logged | Ask what changes if your data must stay in-country or on-premise; look for a concrete pattern, not "we can do anything" |
| 4 | Security certification | An ISO/IEC 27001 (or SOC 2) certificate and its scope | Check the certificate number and scope with the issuing certification body; a certificate for one office or product may not cover your project |
| 5 | Cloud partner credentials | Partner tier and competencies, for example on AWS | Look the company up in the cloud provider's partner directory or announcements, and keep company designations separate from individual engineer certifications |
| 6 | Ownership and IP | The IP assignment clause, and where code and infrastructure will live | Code should sit in your repo and cloud resources in your accounts, with access you can revoke; read the clause before the pilot |
| 7 | Team continuity | Named engineers for your project, how replacements work, and team stability over the last 24 months | Ask how many people changed on a comparable account last year and what the handover looked like |
| 8 | Real seniority | CVs, plus a technical session with the actual engineers rather than a pre-sales architect | Run a system-design discussion on your problem: retrieval strategy, cost per request, fallback behaviour |
| 9 | Operating rhythm across time zones | A sample written handoff and the planned overlap | Ask to see a real, redacted handoff note or weekly report from another client |
| 10 | Commercial clarity | Rate by seniority, minimum engagement, notice period and pilot cost | Compare against public market bands, such as CoderPush's rate card (2026 Vietnam senior market band: $3,300–$5,000 per month gross) |
| 11 | Independent reviews | Directory profiles with verified reviews | Read the reviews, not the badge: check dates, project size, the "Verified" label and what clients said could improve |
A note on directory rankings
Directories are useful, but position in a list is not always merit.
- Clutch's terms say review pages show sponsors first by default, and that sponsorship does not affect a company's ranking or position on its leaders matrix.
- GoodFirms says its paid PRO tier buys featured placement in category lists, above free listings and below sponsored ones, and that star ratings and Leader Matrix positions are not for sale.
When you see a "top AI companies in Vietnam" list, look for the sponsored label, then go straight to the verified reviews.
Red flags specific to AI work in 2026
Our hiring guide covers the classic red flags: demo notebooks only, no MLOps, a focus on low rates, no architecture diagram and weak documentation. Add these:
- They cannot name a metric after launch. "We built a chatbot" describes a project, not a result.
- "Evals" means "we tested it manually." There is no eval set, no pass bar and no example of a blocked release.
- They say yes to every data constraint. On-premise, in-country, PII masking: yes to all, with no example of having done any of them.
- They present individual certifications as company credentials. One engineer's cloud certificate is not a partner competency.
- The IP clause leaves out the pilot. You should own what the pilot produces.
- The team you interviewed is not the team that starts. Ask for named engineers in the statement of work.
- There is no exit path. No notice period, no handover obligation, or code kept in the vendor's repo.
15 questions to ask a vendor
- Show me one AI system you built that is in production today. Who uses it, and what metric do you track?
- Can I speak to that client?
- Walk me through the eval set for that system. What score blocks a release?
- What happens when the model is wrong? Show me the fallback or human escalation.
- Where will our data be stored, and what will the model and your logs see?
- Which security certification do you hold, who issued it, and what is in its scope?
- What is your cloud partner tier, and which competencies are company-level rather than individual?
- Who exactly will work on our project, and can we meet them before signing?
- If one of them leaves, how quickly is the replacement in place, and who pays for the overlap?
- How many engineers changed on your longest-running account last year?
- Will code live in our repo and infrastructure in our accounts from day one?
- How do you plan overlap with our time zone, and what does a handoff note look like?
- What is your rate by seniority, your minimum engagement and your notice period?
- What would you do differently on our problem from what we have proposed?
- When would you tell us not to build this?
The last two questions tell you the most. A good partner pushes back with reasons.
How to run a paid pilot
Our hiring guide recommends starting with a 4–8 week engagement rather than a long-term contract. This structure turns that pilot into a decision.
Before it starts (week 0)
- Pick one real use case with an owner and a KPI.
- Write the success criteria down: a quality bar on an eval set, a latency or cost ceiling, and a delivery milestone.
- Agree IP (you own what is produced), access (your repo and cloud accounts, least privilege) and exit terms (notice and handover).
Weeks 1–2: foundation
- The vendor builds an eval set from your real data and confirms the data boundaries and risk level.
- The first pull request lands in your repo. If that slips past week 2, take note.
Weeks 3–6: build
- Hold weekly demos on the eval set, not on hand-picked examples.
- Track the vendor's questions as well as their output. Good teams raise risks early.
Weeks 7–8: decide
- Score the pilot against the written criteria.
- Review the handoff: could your team run what was built without the vendor?
- Decide whether to scale, adjust the team or stop. A good pilot makes stopping cheap.
As a reference, CoderPush's offer for Vietnamese banks follows a similar 12-week shape:
- Weeks 1–2: a use-case sprint with a test set built from the bank's data.
- Weeks 3–8: the build on the bank's own infrastructure, with every release gated by evaluations.
- Weeks 9–12: live for a named user group, with a monthly measurement report.
How CoderPush answers this checklist
You can test us the same way:
- Production work: TPS AI, embedded in Tien Phong Securities' TPS Mobile AI app, and an embedded team that delivered Axon Vietnam's internal platform in four months. See our case studies.
- Cloud credentials: we are an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner with the AWS AI Competency in Agentic AI Consulting and Generative AI Consulting. Our AWS expertise page keeps company recognition separate from individual certifications.
- Security: ISO/IEC 27001 certified (NQA).
- Ownership: we work in your repo and accounts, and NDA and IP assignment are agreed before access.
- Replacement: if an engineer is not the right fit or leaves, we commit to a replacement within 30 days.
- Reviews: read our Clutch reviews, including the criticism. Some clients found us more expensive than other vendors, and mid-project team changes needed extra explanation.
- Engagement: embedded engineers, a dedicated team, a scoped project or a performance-based model, with a 6-week minimum for hiring. See how to hire AI engineers in Vietnam or our AI product development page.
Frequently asked questions
What should I look for in an AI engineering partner in Vietnam? Look for evidence of production AI: a live system with a metric after launch, an eval set with a release bar, clear data boundaries, a security certificate whose scope you can check, and contract terms that give you the code and accounts. Rates and badges come second.
How do I verify a vendor's AWS partner status? Look the company up in AWS's partner directory or in AWS's published partner announcements. Check which designations are company-level, such as tier and competencies, and which are individual engineer certifications.
How do I verify an ISO 27001 claim? Ask for the certificate, note the issuing certification body, certificate number and scope, and confirm them with the issuer. Check that the scope covers the team and services you are buying.
How long should a paid pilot with an AI vendor be? Four to eight weeks is a practical range, with one use case, written success criteria, and an agreed exit and handover.
Are Clutch and GoodFirms rankings reliable? Their verified reviews are useful, but list order can include paid placement. Clutch shows sponsors first by default, and GoodFirms sells featured placement above free listings, so read the reviews themselves.
What is the biggest mistake buyers make when choosing an AI vendor? Choosing on hourly rate and a demo. The expensive failures come later, from systems nobody can evaluate, operate or hand over.
Sources
- CoderPush, How to Hire AI Engineers in Vietnam: Updated guidance for 2026: https://coderpush.com/how-to-hire-ai-engineers-in-vietnam-updated-guidance-for-2026/
- CoderPush, AI Engineer Rate Card (2026): https://coderpush.com/ai-engineer-rate-card/
- CoderPush, Production AI for Vietnamese banks: https://coderpush.com/banks/
- CoderPush, AWS expertise: https://coderpush.com/aws-expertise/
- AWS Partner Network blog, AWS Competency partners added in August 2026: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/say-hello-to-158-new-aws-competency-service-delivery-service-ready-and-msp-partners-added-in-august/
- Clutch, Terms of Service: https://clutch.co/terms
- GoodFirms, Goodfirms Pro: https://www.goodfirms.co/goodfirms-pro