Agent Bottlenecks Shift to Overhead: Tool Calls and I/O Lag Inference Speed

MatthewBerman · x · 2026-08-25

MatthewBerman shared real-world testing with ultrafast models, revealing that once inference speed is optimized, the bottleneck shifts to surrounding infrastructure: CPU, memory, and networking. Specifically, tool calls were identified as the slowest component. This explains why laptops are currently insufficient for robust agentic workflows and suggests future swarms will rely on cloud resources despite local latency benefits.

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