A growing software agency in Austin, Texas came to us with a clear challenge:

“We need to scale fast, keep our standards high, and cut our delivery costs—without burning out our internal team.”

Hiring locally was slow and expensive. Outsourcing felt risky and their US-based engineers were stretched thin.

What they needed wasn’t just “more developers”—they needed a full, scalable product squad that could plug in quickly, work in real-time, and move fast.

That’s where we came in.

🚀 The Solution: A Full-Scale, AI-Enabled Nearshore Team

We helped them build a dedicated 15-person nearshore team—fully integrated into their workflow, tools, culture, and roadmap.

All operating in their timezone. All fluent in agile, product thinking, and English. All boosted with AI tools that actually improved velocity and reduced overhead.

👥 The Team Breakdown

1 Tech Lead

  • Set technical direction, ensured code quality and scalability
  • Acted as the main interface with the client’s VP of Engineering

2 Engineering Managers / Squad Leads

  • Oversaw day-to-day execution of sprints
  • Handled estimations, peer reviews, and mentoring

8 Software Engineers (Frontend, Backend, Full-Stack)

  • Delivered features using React, Node.js, Python, and TypeScript
  • Used GitHub Copilot and Cursor to write better code, faster
  • Maintained consistent velocity while reducing bug counts

2 QA Engineers (Manual + Automation)

  • Built end-to-end coverage for regression and critical flows
  • Leveraged ChatGPT to auto-generate test cases from acceptance criteria

1 DevOps Engineer

  • Took over CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code
  • Integrated real-time alerting and AI-assisted log monitoring

1 AI Enablement Specialist (fractional)

  • Helped integrate AI tools into daily dev, QA, and PM workflows
  • Trained the team on prompt engineering, Copilot best practices, and automation agents

🧠 How AI Supercharged the Workflow

The magic wasn’t just in the team—it was in how they used AI to multiply output:

  • GitHub Copilot: Auto-completed boilerplate and test coverage
  • Cursor: Made debugging and refactoring lightning fast
  • ChatGPT: Turned epics into tasks, wrote draft documentation, generated test cases
  • Internal agents: Auto-summarized daily standups, flagged blockers, and reviewed PR activity for team leads

This wasn’t experimental. It was daily, practical, and high-leverage.

📉 The Results

Within 3 months:

  • 💰 40% reduction in total development costs
  • 🚀 30–40% improvement in sprint velocity
  • 🐞 Fewer bugs and regressions in QA
  • 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Core US team felt relief—not competition
  • ✅ Clients noticed faster turnarounds and higher feature quality

✅ Why It Worked

  • Strategic team design: Not just engineers—the right mix of roles
  • Cultural and timezone alignment: Real-time sync, no late-night calls
  • AI-enabled from day one: Tools and workflows designed to move faster and smarter

🌎 AI-Enabled Nearshore: A New Standard for Delivery

At Southteams, we believe great software happens when you combine:

  • 🧠 Senior product-minded talent
  • 🤖 Embedded AI tools and workflows
  • 🌎 Smart nearshore structure that aligns with your business

If you’re leading a product or agency team and want to scale fast—without trading quality for cost—we’d love to show you how we do it.

📬 Reach out. Let’s build something that actually works.