Pathway 10: "I'm a Technical Leader Evaluating LLM Strategy" (CTO / Tech Lead / Architect)

Target audience: CTOs, tech leads, and software architects who need to make informed build-vs-buy decisions

Goal: Develop a mental model for LLM capabilities and limitations, understand cost structures, make architectural decisions, and evaluate vendor solutions with confidence.

Chapter Guide

• Skim Ch 04: The Transformer Architecture (concepts only) high-level concepts, skip the math
• Skim Ch 06: Pre-training and Scaling Laws (cost implications) understand training cost implications
• Skim Ch 07: The Modern LLM Landscape (choosing models) guide model selection for your teams
• Skim Ch 08: Reasoning Models (when to use reasoning models) know when reasoning models justify extra cost
• Skim Ch 09: Inference Optimization (cost and latency) cost and latency levers for budget planning
• Focus Ch 10: Working with LLM APIs understand the API integration your team does
• Focus Ch 11: Prompt Engineering speak the language of prompt design
• Skim Ch 12: Hybrid ML+LLM Architectures architectural patterns: when ML vs. LLM vs. both
• Focus Ch 20: RAG the most common enterprise LLM pattern
• Skim Ch 22: AI Agents (capabilities overview) assess agent capabilities and limitations
• Focus Ch 29: Evaluation and Experiment Design set evaluation standards for your teams
• Focus Ch 31: Production Engineering production readiness and operational maturity
• Focus Ch 32: Safety and Compliance compliance requirements you are accountable for
• Focus Ch 33: Strategy, Product and ROI ROI, unit economics, and vendor strategy
• Skim Ch 34: Emerging Architectures upcoming architectures that affect strategic planning
• Skim Ch 35: AI and Society broader context for responsible AI leadership