Beyond the Chatbot: The 5+1 Levels of LLM Maturity in Production The “AI Hype” phase is over. We are now in the “AI Engineering” phase. For CTOs and AI Architects, the question is no longer if we should use Generative AI, but how to architect it for reliability, cost-efficiency, and domain accuracy. Implementing LLMs in production isn’t a binary choice between “using ChatGPT” and “building your own model.” It is a spectrum of complexity. Below, we break down the 0 to 5 maturity model for GenAI applications, analyzing the trade-offs between cost, quality, and engineering effort. Press enter or click to view image in full size Generated by AI Level 0: Rule-Based Automation – The Foundation Layer The Baseline Before we touch neural networks, we must acknowledge the foundation. Level 0 relies on deterministic logic — if/else statements, Regular Expressions (Regex), and rigid decision trees. How it works: Input text is matched against pre-defined pat...