Full disclosure: we're Ryz Labs, and we're one of the options on this page. So yes, we're biased. Here's what we'd actually tell a friend, including when you should hire someone else.
Choose Ryz if you're a US enterprise, in any industry, that wants a senior AI pod team working inside your cloud and repos, on US hours, shipping an AI system to production. We're trusted by Fortune 500 engineering teams, and our pods have done exactly that, including a fraud detection system with $5.94M in confirmed fraud and a compliance review system that has processed 8,000+ documents for a global capital management firm.
Choose EPAM if you're running a broad, multi-year modernization and AI program and want one S&P 500 vendor, with financial services as its largest vertical and its own DIAL and AI/Run accelerators, to staff all of it.
Financial services depth at scale. Financial services was EPAM's largest vertical in FY2025: $1,316.5M, or 24.1% of revenue. That is a very large bench of engineers who have worked inside financial institutions' systems. If your program touches dozens of applications at once, that history counts.
Its own platforms and accelerators. DIAL (Deterministic Integrator of Applications and LLMs) is an open-source GenAI orchestration platform; version 3.0 added agentic workflows in 2025. AI/Run.Transform packages blueprints for building "AI-native delivery teams." EPAM also sells agents through AWS and Google Cloud marketplaces and has a joint financial services modernization offering with AWS. We don't sell a platform. If you want a vendor accelerator in the mix, EPAM has one.
Long, multi-workstream programs. EPAM says 64.4% of its 2025 revenue came from clients of five years or more. It's built for long engagements that span the full software lifecycle, across many workstreams and regions at once.
Public-company transparency. EPAM files a 10-K and publishes audited results, which makes vendor risk reviews simpler.
Our pods ship to production. One Ryz pod built AI fraud detection for a global fleet company: 244K+ invoices scored, under 30 seconds per invoice, and $5.94M in confirmed fraud, validated by the client's own fraud team. Another built AI marketing compliance review for a global capital management firm that has processed 8,000+ documents and cut review from days to hours. Others built an AI voice platform that has handled 1M+ outbound calls. Client names stay private; the details are on our case studies page.
A senior pod inside your cloud and repos. A typical pod is about 7 senior engineers, including a tech lead, an ML engineer and backend engineers, working as one team. They work in your repos, your CI and your standups, inside your cloud (AWS, Azure, GitHub, Postgres, with Anthropic and OpenAI models), and show working software in weekly demos.
New York hours. Our engineers are in Latin America and work within about an hour of US time zones, so code review and decisions happen the same day. Most of EPAM's delivery headcount sits in India and Central/Eastern Europe, with Mexico and Latin America a smaller share, so overlap depends on which team you get.
You choose the engineers. We've interviewed tens of thousands of engineers, and only the top 1% make it. You get a recruiter-curated shortlist, you run the final interview, and our quote comes with the names of the people who would do the work. See our vetting process.
You own the result. When the system is running, you can grow the pod with more people or disciplines, or have it hand the whole system over to your team. The code and the know-how stay with you.
Right-sized for one system. Clutch lists a $100,000+ minimum project for EPAM, and its engagements are built around enterprise program structures. That's a heavy vehicle for one stalled pilot. We scope a single pod around a single system and grow it only if you need more.
Where we're not the right fit. If you need follow-the-sun coverage or engineers in Europe or Asia time zones, a proprietary AI platform, or a board-level transformation program, EPAM is the better choice. The same goes if you want published, self-serve pricing before a conversation.
EPAM doesn't publish prices. Clutch lists a $100,000+ minimum project size and $150 to $199 per hour; those are directory figures, not EPAM's. In practice, expect enterprise contracting and program structures.
Our pricing is a custom quote, scoped per team. We scope first because the size and mix of a pod depend on your system, your data and how much your own team will carry. You get a scoped plan, a price and the names of the engineers. The downside: no public number to compare before a call.
For a wider view, see our guide to the best AI engineering teams for financial institutions, the EPAM alternatives page, or Ryz Labs vs Thoughtworks.
Yes. Financial services is its largest vertical at about $1.3B in 2025 revenue. EPAM says it helped one of the world's largest international financial agencies use DIAL to make industry data searchable in natural language, and helped a global financial institution modernize its call center with Salesforce and AWS. Most of its public financial services AI cases are anonymized.
Some. Its 10-K lists about 2,950 people in Mexico plus other Latin American sites. Its largest delivery centers are in India and Central/Eastern Europe, so ask which locations would staff your team.
Usually because the job is specific and urgent: one AI system, one pilot that stalled, one team that needs senior help now. A senior AI pod team that works in your stack, ships to production and hands the system over can be the faster path. For a broad, multi-year program across many regions, a firm like EPAM is often the better fit.
It depends on scope and the skills you need. We talk, match a team to your stack, and embed it in your repos and standups. Talk to us and we'll give you a scoped plan with names.
Everything here was checked against each company's own site and public sources in October 2026. Vendors change terms often, so confirm before you sign.