AI vs. Code: Why High-Frequency Logic Should Stay Deterministic

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A software experiment building an LLM-powered support agent found that routing high-frequency decisions through AI models carries a steep hidden cost. Running a simple refund eligibility check 50,000 times daily via Claude Sonnet costs roughly $29,200 a year, compared to fractions of a cent for the same logic written as a Java method. The cost gap between an AI call and a deterministic code check is approximately one billion to one. The author argues the real boundary is not about capability but frequency: AI earns its cost for one-off judgement calls like parsing natural language, while rule-based decisions that run per request, per retry, or per rule evaluation belong in code. The finding suggests that what initially looks like a correctness design decision also turns out to be the economically rational one.

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