How I Cut My AI API Costs by 70% Without Sacrificing Quality

A few months ago, I was building a chatbot for a client that needed to handle customer support queries. The requirements were straightforward: answer common questions, escalate complex issues, and keep latency under 2 seconds. I started with OpenAI’s API because it’s easy, but after a week of testing, the bill was already climbing into triple digits. That’s when I realized I couldn’t just throw more money at the problem—I needed a smarter architecture. The Problem: Every query costs mo...