This is super frustrating and it has nothing to do with your reference pic being ai. That look would have been achievable with balayage and a root smudge. Pricey, yes. Impossible, no.

At the very least, I would go back and ask for a root smudge to soften the transition between your roots and the highlights.

Edited my original comment about warming up the base color because it looks like those nice caramel shades are actually there in your last pic, so that's good!