AI in production is not about using the latest model. It is about reliability, cost control, and knowing when a simple rule engine does the job better than GPT-4.
Start with the simplest approach. Before reaching for GPT-4o, ask: can a regex or a lookup table solve this?
Always have a fallback. Every AI feature in our systems has a manual override.
Structured output is your friend. Constrain the output format using JSON schemas or function calling.