Saastr · 18 August 2026 · Operating Insight

Rippling Ran 2,100 Scored Agent Runs Per Model on Real Payroll Data. The Cheapest Model Tied the Most Expensive One.

Jason Lemkin, GP @ SaaStr

Rippling tested 15 AI models on 2,100 real payroll tasks, finding that the cheapest model matched expensive ones in accuracy (88.7% vs 91%), making model choice primarily a margin decision. The key insight: tuning and verification matter more than picking the latest model.

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Topics: Enterprise Software · AI (Horizontal) · AI Infrastructure

Published by Saastr · their site ↗

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