Small Language Models and the “Router” Architecture: Why Bigger Isn’t Always Better
Enterprise teams are quietly making a billion‑dollar mistake in 2026: they send every query , simple or complex to giant models like GPT‑5.2 or Claude 3.5. It works, but economically it is the equivalent of having a Senior Investment Banker handle password resets.
The question is no longer “How do we use GPT‑5.2 everywhere?” The real question is: “When is a small, cheap model good enough, and how do we route traffic there by default?”