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AI Feature Profitability: When to Kill the Model

Your AI feature impresses users but destroys margin. Here's the decision framework.

By Richard Ewing·

The AI Feature Trap

The AI feature that demos beautifully and quietly destroys your unit economics. Sunset when: marginal cost exceeds marginal revenue with no optimization path, usage is concentrated in 5% of users, or model routing won't save you.

The 10x Rule

Your AI feature should generate at least 10x its inference cost in revenue. Below 10x, the feature is fragile.

Before You Kill: Optimization Checklist

1. Model routing (60-75% reduction). 2. Caching (20-40%). 3. Prompt optimization (10-30%). 4. Usage limits. 5. Fine-tune smaller model.

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Published Work

This article expands on ideas from my published work in CIO.com, Built In, Mind the Product, and HackerNoon. View published articles →

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Richard Ewing

The Product Economist — Quantifying engineering economics for technology leaders, PE firms, and boards.

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