AI-Heavy SaaS + Commerce Brand
AI inference costs cut 61% by routing to cheaper models for simple queries
OpenRouter inside ExecCortex routed complex queries to GPT-4o and simple FAQs to Mixtral — same quality, 61% less cost.
🛒
61%
AI inference cost reduction
$4,200 → $1,600
Monthly AI spend
Negligible
Response quality impact
The story
A brand running 50,000+ AI-powered support interactions per month was spending $4,200/month on OpenAI alone. Using OpenRouter inside ExecCortex, they implemented a routing rule: simple intent queries (order status, return policy) went to Mixtral-8x7B at a fraction of the cost, while complex reasoning (custom quotes, complaints) went to GPT-4o. AI spend dropped to $1,600/month with no measurable quality degradation.
"ExecCortex paid for itself in the first week. The team finally stopped chasing dashboards and started chasing growth."
Operations Lead · AI-Heavy SaaS + Commerce Brand