AI Engineering Economics in a Minute

AI Engineering Economics

Coding-agent ROI, cost per accepted change, retries, review cost, and model-selection economics.

Central question: Was the agent work worth what it cost?

• Cost Per Accepted Change

  Attribute agent spend to changes that actually merge—so abandoned loops do not look like productivity.

• Coding Agent ROI

  A disciplined way to talk about coding-agent return on investment without false precision.

• Cost of Retries

  Fully loading failed agent attempts into task economics instead of hiding them.

• Cost of Human Review

  Why human review is part of AI coding economics—not a free cleanup step after the agent.

• Model Selection Economics

  When a more expensive model can be cheaper overall—and when it is not.