Sreenivas: Deploying custom open-source models eliminates major AI cost pressures
Ashwin Sreenivas · How Decagon Runs 90% of Its Agents on Open-Source Models · Jul 30, 2026 · at 14:36
Ashwin Sreenivas, co-founder and president of Decagon, contrasts the cost dynamics of running on frontier models versus fine-tuned open-source models.
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“If we ran our entire business exclusively on frontier models, I would care a lot about costs, and I would think a lot about that, but once you're already, once you've already made the jump to saying, okay, now, now we know how to think about open source models, we know how to decompose upon, we know how to build, train, and deploy these models very, very quickly, all of a sudden that, the cost aspect becomes a lot less pressing.”
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