EDITOR’ S QUESTION
HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHETHER AN LLM OR SLM WILL SET YOUR ENTERPRISE UP FOR SUCCESS?
Brian Sathianathan, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder, Iterate. ai, says instead of chasing scale for its own sake, CIOs should prioritize precision, adaptability and cost control.
BRIAN SATHIANATHAN, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AND CO-FOUNDER, ITERATE. AI
By now, every business has heard the pitch for LLMs. What’ s still less obvious is understanding when a smaller, faster, cheaper model might do the job better. CIOs are under a lot of pressure to figure out if they need large LLMs, small language models( SLMs) or both.
Many enterprises are already leveraging SLMs through internal development efforts or platforms that make small model deployment easier.
But the choice isn’ t binary and, increasingly, the most effective enterprise AI strategies rely on a combination of the two.
LLMs grab the headlines. Their ability to generate natural-sounding responses across a wide range of prompts makes them attractive for customerfacing use cases and complex reasoning tasks. But SLMs are becoming just as important to business outcomes. These smaller, more targeted models are ideal for faster development, domain-specific use, and efficient scaling. Both models have a role to play, and using them together can lead to smarter, more sustainable outcomes.
28 INTELLIGENTCIO LATAM www www.. intelligentcio. com. com