Long Island AI Developer
Custom AI features, automations, and intelligent tools built into real products that ship — by an engineer who treats AI as a way to solve problems, not a buzzword to sell.
I’m Ken Key, a Long Island AI developer who builds artificial intelligence into products people actually use — not slide decks. The hype around AI is deafening right now, and most of it is noise. My job is to cut through it: figure out where AI genuinely makes your product faster, smarter, or cheaper to run, build that, and be honest with you about where it isn’t the answer yet.
In practice that means integrating large language models like OpenAI’s GPT and Anthropic’s Claude with proper prompts, guardrails, and cost control; building retrieval and search over your own data; adding assistants, summarization, and recommendations inside your app or website; and automating the repetitive work that quietly eats your team’s week. I already ship AI features in real software at KeyInventions — and because I build the apps and the backends too, the AI isn’t a disconnected experiment; it’s wired into something that works.
What AI work looks like
AI features inside real products
Chat, search, summarization, recommendations, and assistants built into your app or site — useful, not gimmicky.
LLM & API integration done right
OpenAI, Claude, and open models connected with solid prompts, guardrails, and cost control so it’s reliable and affordable.
Automation that saves real hours
Pipelines that handle the repetitive, copy-paste work your team shouldn’t be doing by hand.
Honest about the limits
I build what genuinely helps and tell you plainly where AI isn’t ready — no magic promises, no wasted budget.
A simple, honest process.
Understand
We talk through what you’re actually trying to achieve. If I’m not the right fit, I’ll say so and point you somewhere better.
Build
I design and build it properly, keep you in the loop, and make the trade-offs visible instead of hiding them.
Last
You get something fast, documented, and maintainable — and I’m here when you need to grow it.
You get the person building it, not a project manager.
You talk to the person writing the code
No account managers, no game of telephone. The person who scopes your project is the one who builds it, and the one you email when something needs to change.
One person accountable for all of it
Design, code, performance, and the search foundation underneath. Nothing falls through the gap between a design team and a dev team, because there is no gap.
Senior work, priced like an independent
No agency overhead of offices, sales teams, and layers of management. You get experienced hands at a fair rate, and decisions happen in a conversation instead of a change-request queue.
Frequently asked.
What can AI actually do for my business?
Concretely: answer customer questions, summarize long documents, draft and triage content, search your own data in plain English, recommend the right thing, and automate repetitive tasks. We start from a real problem you have, not from “let’s add AI.”
Which AI models do you use?
Whichever fits the job — OpenAI’s GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, or open-source models you can run yourself. The right choice depends on accuracy, privacy, and cost, and I’ll recommend honestly rather than defaulting to the trendiest one.
Is my data safe with AI features?
It’s handled deliberately. I’m careful about what gets sent to third-party models, when to keep data in-house, and how to keep you in control. Privacy and cost are design decisions, not afterthoughts.
Can you add AI to my existing app or website?
Yes. A lot of AI work is integrating it into something that already exists — your site, app, or internal tools — rather than starting over.
Where should my business start with AI?
Start with one real problem, not the hype. Usually it’s something repetitive your team does by hand, like sorting inquiries or drafting replies. I help you pick the one use that pays off first, build it properly, then expand once it earns its keep.
Explore more of what I do
Working across Suffolk & Nassau.
Based in Commack and working with businesses all over Long Island — and remotely beyond. If you searched “AI developer near me,” you’re in the right place.
Want to put AI to work — properly?
A few sentences about your project is all it takes to start.