What You Actually Need to Monitor AI Systems in Production

Effectively monitoring AI systems in production involves more than simple prompt-response observability; it requires thorough tracking and understanding of the entire workflow from user input to AI output. During the pre-production phase, developers should focus on logging complete prompts, responses, model configurations, and token usage to debug issues and track changes. In the production phase, the focus shifts to tracing the entire system's behavior, including frontend and backend interactions, latency issues, and unexpected model behavior. As the product achieves market fit, the emphasis is on detecting output drift, evaluating performance metrics, and managing costs while ensuring the retrieval system's accuracy. Implementing comprehensive tracing and evaluation tools like Sentry and OpenTelemetry can provide critical insights and prevent silent failures. Understanding and addressing these elements are crucial for maintaining robust and reliable AI systems in production.