Designing production AI systems requires balancing: quality, latency, cost, and reliability.
| Decision | Trade-off |
|---|---|
| Model choice | Larger model = better quality but higher cost and latency |
| Streaming vs. batch | Streaming = better UX; batch = higher throughput |
| Caching responses | Faster + cheaper but may return stale answers |
| Prompt caching | Reduces cost for repeated long system prompts |
| Fallback model | Use cheaper model if primary is unavailable or too slow |