Model Routing
Automatically sending different types of requests to different AI models based on complexity and cost. Simple questions go to a smaller, cheaper model. Hard or nuanced questions go to a more powerful one. This cuts costs significantly without sacrificing quality on the things that matter. Like a staffing manager who routes simple tickets to junior support agents and escalates complex ones to senior staff — except automated and happening on every request.
In practice
You build a tool that sends simple FAQs to Claude Haiku (cheap, fast) and complex multi-step requests to Claude Sonnet (smarter, pricier). That automatic sorting is model routing — directing each request to the right model based on complexity, cost, or latency requirements. Done well, it can cut costs by 60% without degrading quality.
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