The quick read
- For a document assistant, time the full path from upload to reviewed answer.
- Remove redundant calls, shorten irrelevant context and run independent steps concurrently where appropriate.
Break down the journey
A request can spend time retrieving data, waiting in a queue, processing context, generating text and calling tools. Time to the first visible response differs from time to a usable result. An early sentence does not help much if the required action remains unfinished.
Measure realistic work
For a document assistant, time the full path from upload to reviewed answer. Repeat with ordinary and unusually large inputs, and examine slow cases separately. A single fast demonstration says little about consistency under normal load.
Improve the bottleneck
Remove redundant calls, shorten irrelevant context and run independent steps concurrently where appropriate. Consider a smaller model when it meets the same acceptance criteria. Give meaningful progress feedback during work that genuinely takes time. Preserve the checks and evidence users need; removing validation can make a fast system unreliable. Record both quality and delay after each change. The best optimisation reduces the wait that matters to the user without moving hidden work onto the reviewer.
Sources & notes
AI-assisted editorial content checked against the linked sources.
developers.openai.com — official reference
Sources reviewed for the September 2026 launch edition.