As of October 2025, the reliance on generative AI has grown significantly among enterprise leaders, with 82% using it weekly and many seeing positive returns on investment. However, challenges such as the lack of lifecycle management infrastructure and robust evaluation pipelines hinder the scalability and mainstream adoption of AI agents in production. To address these issues, LLM tracing tools have emerged as essential for tracking, evaluating, and managing the lifecycle of large language model (LLM) pipelines. LLM tracing involves capturing and analyzing the decision-making processes within AI systems, providing transparency and enabling performance optimization. Tools like Arize Phoenix, Braintrust, Comet Opik, and LangSmith have been developed to facilitate LLM tracing, offering features such as end-to-end data flow visualization, prompt management, performance monitoring, and integration with various frameworks. These tools leverage standards like OpenInference and the OpenTelemetry Protocol to ensure consistent trace representation and seamless data flow, thus reducing integration friction and enhancing the observability of AI systems. Despite their advantages, some tools present limitations, such as requiring extensive infrastructure knowledge or being deeply integrated into specific ecosystems, which can pose challenges for smaller teams or those seeking to scale beyond particular platforms.