DEV Community

Cover image for Why “Just Try Another Prompt” Is Not an Experiment Strategy
Priyam
Priyam

Posted on

Why “Just Try Another Prompt” Is Not an Experiment Strategy

AI teams say this all the time:

“Let’s try a different prompt or model.”

But AI experimentation isn’t UI A/B testing.

Key differences:

  • Changes affect meaning, not layout
  • Evaluation requires reasoning, not CTR
  • You must test offline before users see results

Prompts × models × parameters create combinatorial chaos

A usable AI experiment pipeline needs:

  • Prompt versioning with side-by-side evaluation
  • Model comparisons on the same task
  • Parameter sweeps that aren’t random
  • Multi-axis comparison (quality, cost, latency)

A practical workflow:
Step 1: Build or generate a test set
Step 2: Define variants
Step 3: Run evaluations automatically
Step 4: Compare results clearly
Step 5: Deploy with confidence

If every experiment is a manual effort, teams experiment less.
Infrastructure doesn’t slow you down. It’s what enables speed.

How many meaningful AI experiments did your team run last month?

Top comments (0)