How to Remain Independent of an AI Provider?

Why This Is Important

Models are discontinued, prices change, providers alter conditions. An application that is hardwired to a specific model must then be rebuilt – under time pressure.

The Intermediate Layer

Your application calls on its own interface: "Classify this text into a category." Behind this lies the connection to the provider. A change affects only this one place.

This costs little during development but saves time during transitions.

The Test Case Collection

More important than the intermediate layer: fifty to a hundred real cases with the correct answer for each. With this, a new model can be evaluated in an hour.

Without this collection, you only realize quality has dropped during operation – and cannot prove it.

What Changes Between Models

• The phrasing of instructions appears different
• Output formats vary
• The tendency to fabricate information differs
• Costs and response times change

A model change is therefore never just a configuration change.

What You Can Avoid

The attempt to build completely provider-neutral. Some adjustment work is inevitable. The goal is to make a transition take days, not months.

Practical Advice

Set up the test case collection as soon as the first application is running – not when the transition is imminent. At that point, the cases are still available and the correct answers are known.