Multi-provider AI

Multi-provider AI uses AI services from more than one provider within an application or operating environment. Teams may do this to use different capabilities, add capacity, recover from failures, or keep more purchasing options open.

Provider abstraction lets an application use different providers through a common interface. Model portability means moving a workload to another model while preserving the behavior it needs. A common interface simplifies the connection, but model behavior, data handling, and commercial terms still need comparison.

Explore Dome: Model Broker · Docs: LLM gateway.

Compare more than the API

Suppose a team wants to move a document-extraction task between two providers. The application sends a prompt, requests structured fields, and sometimes asks the model to call a lookup tool.

For the extraction task, test whether both providers return the required fields and make acceptable tool-call choices. Then compare where they process the documents and what a completed task costs.

Dome's LLM gateway documentation describes supported client shapes and notes that provider-specific extensions can be lost when translating across different API dialects. Check whether translation preserves the fields your workload relies on.

Explore Dome: Model Broker · Docs: LLM gateway.

Define what a successful result looks like

Write down what the application needs from a completed extraction: required fields, permitted uncertainty, supported document sizes, tool behavior, and an acceptable completion time. Then test each provider against the same representative cases.

Use synthetic or appropriately approved documents. Include difficult cases as well as routine examples. Record failures and refusals as outcomes instead of discarding them from the comparison.

For a proposed migration, retain the provider-specific configuration alongside the evaluation results. Settings such as temperature, context limits, or structured output can behave differently even when providers give them similar names.

Keep the actual provider and configuration with each evaluation result, even if the application uses the same endpoint name for both.

Explore Dome: Model Broker · Docs: Configure pools.

Check for shared points of failure

Having two model connections doesn't guarantee that one stays available when the other fails. They may share an underlying provider, region, capacity source, or network dependency. Document what differs before describing the design as resilient.

Using several providers also means maintaining their credentials and tracking their costs. Assign owners for provider access, destination approval, and cost reconciliation. Remove unused connections rather than letting an old experiment become a permanent alternative route.

Dome's Model Broker can centralize configured model access and routing. The organization still chooses which providers to approve, how to judge workload results, and which provider terms meet its requirements.

For related decisions, see routing to choose a destination for each request, failover to plan recovery, and unit economics to compare cost per useful result.

Explore Dome: Model Broker · Docs: LLM gateway.