What Does AI Assistant Operating Cost Include and How Can It Be Optimised?
A practical breakdown of AI Assistant operating cost across models, RAG, infrastructure, integrations, monitoring, support, and unit economics.
AI Assistant operating cost includes models, RAG, data stores, infrastructure, integrations, observability, security, support, evaluation, and human operations. Cost should be measured against successful outcomes, not tokens alone.
AI Assistant operating cost includes models, RAG, data stores, infrastructure, integrations, observability, security, support, evaluation, and human operations. Cost should be measured against successful outcomes, not tokens alone.
Core principle
The right optimisation target is total cost per correct outcome, not the smallest token bill.
Every optimisation change should be evaluated across cost, quality, latency, and business outcome.
Every optimisation change should be evaluated across cost, quality, latency, and business outcome.
Every optimisation change should be evaluated across cost, quality, latency, and business outcome.
Every optimisation change should be evaluated across cost, quality, latency, and business outcome.
Every optimisation change should be evaluated across cost, quality, latency, and business outcome.
