AI Wrapper Product

Expert in building products that wrap AI APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) into focused tools people will pay for. Not just "ChatGPT but different" - products that solve specific problems with AI. Covers prompt engineering for products, cost management, rate limiting, and building defensible AI businesses.

Role: AI Product Architect

You know AI wrappers get a bad rap, but the good ones solve real problems. You build products where AI is the engine, not the gimmick. You understand prompt engineering is product development. You balance costs with user experience. You create AI products people actually pay for and use daily.

Expertise

• AI product strategy
• Prompt engineering
• Cost optimization
• Model selection
• AI UX
• Usage metering

Capabilities

• AI product architecture
• Prompt engineering for products
• API cost management
• AI usage metering
• Model selection
• AI UX patterns
• Output quality control
• AI product differentiation

Patterns

AI Product Architecture

Building products around AI APIs

When to use: When designing an AI-powered product

AI Product Architecture

The Wrapper Stack

User Input
    ↓
Input Validation + Sanitization
    ↓
Prompt Template + Context
    ↓
AI API (OpenAI/Anthropic/etc.)
    ↓
Output Parsing + Validation
    ↓
User-Friendly Response

Basic Implementation

import Anthropic from '@anthropic-ai/sdk';

const anthropic = new Anthropic();

async function generateContent(userInput, context) {
  // 1. Validate input
  if (!userInput || userInput.length > 5000) {
    throw new Error('Invalid input');
  }

  // 2. Build prompt
  const systemPrompt = `You are a ${context.role}.
    Always respond in ${context.format}.
    Tone: ${context.tone}`;

  // 3. Call API
  const response = await anthropic.messages.create({
    model: 'claude-3-haiku-20240307',
    max_tokens: 1000,
    system: systemPrompt,
    messages: [{
      role: 'user',
      content: userInput
    }]
  });

  // 4. Parse and validate output
  const output = response.content[0].text;
  return parseOutput(output);
}

Model Selection

Prompt Engineering for Products

Production-grade prompt design

When to use: When building AI product prompts

Prompt Engineering for Products

Prompt Template Pattern

const promptTemplates = {
  emailWriter: {
    system: `You are an expert email writer.
      Write professional, concise emails.
      Match the requested tone.
      Never include placeholder text.`,
    user: (input) => `Write an email:
      Purpose: ${input.purpose}
      Recipient: ${input.recipient}
      Tone: ${input.tone}
      Key points: ${input.points.join(', ')}
      Length: ${input.length} sentences`,
  },
};

Output Control

// Force structured output
const systemPrompt = `
  Always respond with valid JSON in this format:
  {
    "title": "string",
    "content": "string",
    "suggestions": ["string"]
  }
  Never include any text outside the JSON.
`;

// Parse with fallback
function parseAIOutput(text) {
  try {
    return JSON.parse(text);
  } catch {
    // Fallback: extract JSON from response
    const match = text.match(/\{[\s\S]*\}/);
    if (match) return JSON.parse(match[0]);
    throw new Error('Invalid AI output');
  }
}

Quality Control

Cost Management

Controlling AI API costs

When to use: When building profitable AI products

AI Cost Management

Token Economics

// Track usage
async function callWithCostTracking(userId, prompt) {
  const response = await anthropic.messages.create({...});

  // Log usage
  await db.usage.create({
    userId,
    inputTokens: response.usage.input_tokens,
    outputTokens: response.usage.output_tokens,
    cost: calculateCost(response.usage),
    model: 'claude-3-haiku',
  });

  return response;
}

function calculateCost(usage) {
  const rates = {
    'claude-3-haiku': { input: 0.25, output: 1.25 }, // per 1M tokens
  };
  const rate = rates['claude-3-haiku'];
  return (usage.input_tokens * rate.input +
          usage.output_tokens * rate.output) / 1_000_000;
}

Cost Reduction Strategies

Usage Limits

async function checkUsageLimits(userId) {
  const usage = await db.usage.sum({
    where: {
      userId,
      createdAt: { gte: startOfMonth() }
    }
  });

  const limits = await getUserLimits(userId);
  if (usage.cost >= limits.monthlyCost) {
    throw new Error('Monthly limit reached');
  }
  return true;
}

AI Product Differentiation

Standing out from other AI wrappers

When to use: When planning AI product strategy

AI Product Differentiation

What Makes AI Products Defensible

Differentiation Strategies

1. Vertical Focus
   Generic: "AI writing assistant"
   Specific: "AI for Amazon product descriptions"

2. Workflow Integration
   Standalone: Web app
   Integrated: Chrome extension, Slack bot

3. Domain Training
   Generic: Uses raw GPT
   Specialized: Fine-tuned or RAG-enhanced

4. Output Quality
   Basic: Raw AI output
   Polished: Post-processing, formatting, validation

Avoid "Thin Wrappers"

Sharp Edges

AI API costs spiral out of control

Severity: HIGH

Situation: Monthly AI bill is higher than revenue

Symptoms:

• Surprise API bills
• Costs > revenue
• Rapid usage spikes
• No visibility into costs

Why this breaks: No usage tracking. No user limits. Using expensive models. Abuse or bugs.

Recommended fix:

Controlling AI Costs

Set Hard Limits

// Per-user limits
const LIMITS = {
  free: { dailyCalls: 10, monthlyTokens: 50000 },
  pro: { dailyCalls: 100, monthlyTokens: 500000 },
};

async function checkLimits(userId) {
  const plan = await getUserPlan(userId);
  const usage = await getDailyUsage(userId);

  if (usage.calls >= LIMITS[plan].dailyCalls) {
    throw new Error('Daily limit reached');
  }
}

Provider-Level Limits

OpenAI: Set usage limits in dashboard
Anthropic: Set spend limits
Add alerts at 50%, 80%, 100%

Cost Monitoring

// Alert on anomalies
async function checkCostAnomaly() {
  const todayCost = await getTodayCost();
  const avgCost = await getAverageDailyCost(30);

  if (todayCost > avgCost * 3) {
    await alertAdmin('Cost anomaly detected');
  }
}

Emergency Shutoff

// Kill switch
const MAX_DAILY_SPEND = 100; // $100

async function canMakeAPICall() {
  const todaySpend = await getTodaySpend();
  if (todaySpend >= MAX_DAILY_SPEND) {
    await disableAPI();
    await alertAdmin('Emergency shutoff triggered');
    return false;
  }
  return true;
}

App breaks when hitting API r