Token Engineering

Beyond Vibe Testing: Smarter Eval for Agentic AI

In this episode of Inference Time Tactics, Rob, Cooper, and Byron explore Salesforce’s CRMArena-Pro benchmark and what it reveals about the limits of enterprise AI agents. They share why benchmark scores often fail in production, how inference-time tactics like best-of-N can improve reliability, and what NeuroMetric is building to make eval easier—from an ITC Test Engine to a drag-and-drop interface for rapid visualization and experimentation.
 
We talked about:
 
Why Salesforce’s CRMArena-Pro benchmark highlights the gap between lab benchmarks and real-world agent reliability.
How leading models perform inconsistently across single-turn and multi-turn enterprise tasks.
Why benchmark scores are weak predictors of operational success in production.
The role of inference-time tactics in reducing variance and improving stability.
NeuroMetric’s new platform: ITC Test Engine and drag-and-drop interface for experimentation.
Challenges in building agentic systems, from database integration to managing multi-prompt complexity.
Why large language models’ stochastic nature conflicts with business demands for reliability.
Latency, cost, and rate limits as major bottlenecks in scaling agentic workflows.
The limits of “vibe testing” and why rigorous evaluation frameworks are essential.
How Google’s Stacks tool speeds up evaluation with LLM-as-judge, and why it still falls short for enterprise needs.
Resources Mentioned:
CRMArena-Pro from Saleforce:
https://www.salesforce.com/blog/crmarena-pro/  
 
Connect with Neurometric:Website: https://www.neurometric.ai/ 
Substack: https://neurometric.substack.com/ 
X: https://x.com/neurometric/ 
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/neurometric.bsky.social
 
Hosts:
Rob May
https://x.com/robmay 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robmay
 
Calvin Cooper
https://x.com/cooper_nyc_ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coopernyc
 
Guest/s:
Byron Galbraith
https://x.com/bgalbraith 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/byrongalbraith

GPT-5, The $100B Gap, and The Economics of Inference

In this episode of Inference Time Tactics, Rob and Cooper unpack the launch of GPT 5.0 and what OpenAI’s new routing layer signals about the shifting AI landscape. They explore the tradeoffs of cost, latency, and accuracy, zoom out to programmable inference in an agent-driven world, and track the ripple effects on chips, data centers, and energy use.
We talked about:
 
Why GPT 5.0’s launch felt more like refinement than a revolution in AI progress.
How OpenAI’s new routing layer reframes the race around inference control.
The tradeoffs routing enables between cost, latency, and accuracy across models.
Why the “one model to rule them all” view is giving way to multi-model orchestration.
The strategic role of programmable inference in an agent-driven world.
How router companies are becoming a strategic layer in the AI technology stack.
The impact of inference compute on chips, accelerators, and data center design.
Why energy use at scale is driving a push for more efficient AI systems.
Why inference optimization may be the next big competitive edge.
 
Connect with Neurometric:Website: https://www.neurometric.ai/ 
Substack: https://neurometric.substack.com/ 
X: https://x.com/neurometric/ 
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/neurometric.bsky.social
 
Hosts:
Rob May
https://x.com/robmay 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robmay
 
Calvin Cooper
https://x.com/cooper_nyc_ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coopernyc

When AI Overthinks: Lessons from the Illusion of Thinking Paper

In this episode of Inference Time Tactics, Rob, Cooper, and CTO Byron unpack Apple’s “Illusion of Thinking” paper—why it split the AI community, what it reveals about reasoning model limits, and how hidden thinking traces shape performance. They share insights from building an open-source tool to reproduce the study, explain why models loop, overthink, or stall, and outline what it will take to build more reliable reasoning systems for real-world use.
We talked about:
 
Why Apple’s Illusion of Thinking paper sparked heated debate in the AI community.
How reasoning models work, including hidden “thinking” phases and token budget limits.
Key findings on when reasoning improves results, when it degrades them, and where it stalls.
Reasons models loop, overthink, or abandon tasks.
Building an open-source tool to replicate the study and test local reasoning models.
What real-time reasoning traces reveal about model behavior and limits.
Challenges in scoring reasoning quality and treating “I don’t know” as a valid output.
Why reasoning models must be matched carefully to specific tasks.
The ongoing debate over scaling vs. new architectures for advancing reasoning.
Developing a benchmarking platform to help enterprises choose models for IP-sensitive applications.
Resources Mentioned:
Illusion of Thinking Paper
https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/illusion-of-thinking 
Neurometric Illusion of Thinking Tool
https://github.com/NeurometricAI/illusion-of-thinking 
 
Connect with Neurometric:Website: https://www.neurometric.ai/ 
Substack: https://neurometric.substack.com/ 
X: https://x.com/neurometric/ 
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/neurometric.bsky.social
 
Hosts:
Rob May
https://x.com/robmay 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robmay
 
Calvin Cooper
https://x.com/cooper_nyc_ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coopernyc
 
Guest/s:
Byron Galbraith
https://x.com/bgalbraith 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/byrongalbraith

The Strategic Trade Offs Behind Inference Time Compute Decisions

In this episode of Inference Time Tactics, Rob and Cooper dig into the strategic trade-offs driving a major shift in AI: why some enterprises start with closed models like OpenAI or Anthropic, then move to open-source stacks. The team breaks down the challenges of switching and how inference-time compute is becoming a competitive differentiator. They also unpack why pricing is shifting, how governance will evolve for this new layer, and what Rob learned from reviewing 250 research papers on reasoning algorithms. 
We talked about: 
 
Insights from reviewing 250 research papers on reasoning algorithms. 
Why enterprises start with closed models like OpenAI or Anthropic before moving to open-source stacks. 
Challenges of switching stacks, including model fragmentation, capability gaps, and hardware choices. 
Cost-performance trade-offs when choosing inference architectures. 
How inference-time configuration can become a competitive differentiator. 
The role of pricing shifts and vendor lock-in in AI adoption. 
Emerging governance considerations for inference workflows. 
The growing variety and complexity of inference-time techniques.. 
Benchmarking challenges for multi-step and reasoning tasks. 
Why the lack of best practices makes inference optimization harder to operationalize. 
  
Connect with Neurometric:Website: https://www.neurometric.ai/  
Substack: https://neurometric.substack.com/  
X: https://x.com/neurometric/  
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/neurometric.bsky.social  
 
Hosts: 
Rob May 
https://x.com/robmay  
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robmay 
 
Calvin Cooper 
https://x.com/cooper_nyc_  
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coopernyc Comment end  

Why Inference Time Compute Is the Future of AI

Welcome to the very first episode of Inference Time Tactics — the podcast for builders, researchers, and engineers pushing the limits of AI performance.
In this kickoff conversation, hosts Rob May and Cooper (co-founders of Neurometric AI) break down why inference time compute is emerging as the third scaling law of AI — and why it matters more than ever.
They unpack:
What “inference time compute” really means (and how it differs from training and fine-tuning)
Why reasoning algorithms like best-of-N, chain of thought, and beam search are reshaping performance
How recent research — and OpenAI’s 2024 reasoning model — sparked an explosion of interest
The challenge of reliability (“three nines” and beyond) in multi-step agent workflows
Why open-source models may win big, and where inference fits at the edge
This is a technical, tactical deep-dive — but without the heavy math. If you’re building the next generation of AI systems, or just want to understand where the field is really headed, this episode is your starting point.
🔗 Learn more at neurometric.ai