Clients Overpay for Frontier Models While Trusting SLMs Less, Consultant Says
BaronVonLongfellow · reddit · 2026-10-03
An AI consultant reports that fintech clients widely feel frontier models don't justify their cost, yet remain reluctant to adopt a small-model (SLM) strategy — SLMs have been positioned as the "homeopathic option" of enterprise AI.
The author shares a machine built over a year ago to test DeepSeek R1 that has since become a workhorse, but clients remain skittish about small, secure, locally-hosted models. The post highlights the tension between frontier-model faith and actual ROI in enterprise AI adoption.
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