In AI development, moving from hype to high-value means optimizing base models into specialized versions. This presentation shows the benefits of smaller, focused models that outperform proprietary mega-models ones in latency, throughput, and cost-efficiency. Learn practical methods, real-world examples, and best practices for moving from prototype to production. Discover how Fireworks AI helps developers go from idea to application with the fastest and most efficient inference platform. Additionally, explore how AI developers are creating compound AI systems, combining multiple models and components to tackle the most challenging AI tasks.