AI Techniques

Reasoning Model (Extended Thinking)

A class of language model that spends additional inference-time compute generating intermediate reasoning before producing a final answer. Trades higher latency and cost for materially better performance on math, coding, planning, and multi-step problems. Often selected for hard tasks in agent pipelines while cheaper models handle routine steps.

Related terms

AI Agent
An autonomous AI system that can perceive its environment, make decisions, and take actions to achieve specific goals. Agents can use tools, interact with APIs, and coordinate with other agents.

Also referenced: Chain-of-Thought, Large Language Model.

Framework dimensions

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LLM Cost Optimization Patterns

Comparisons

RAG vs Fine-tuning vs Prompt Engineering: Decision Framework

Next steps

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Where this fits

Reasoning Model (Extended Thinking) is part of the AI Techniques vocabulary used in the Generative AI Maturity Framework. See the full glossary for the complete set of 149 defined terms, or take the free maturity assessment to see where your organisation stands.