The Hidden Trap in Technical Decisions: Trading a One-Time Cost for Continuous Debt
Our team uses more and more AI services—OpenAI, Deepseek, Tongyi, Doubao, Claude… Each platform has its own API, its own keys, its own billing model. The configuration gets messier, the calls get more scattered, and so sooner or later someone proposes: Why don’t we build our own AI Gateway? Either build it ourselves, or buy one off the shelf. It’s a very natural idea. I’ve had it too. Build an AI Gateway and solve all the problems at once—what a great KPI story. ...