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LLM Observability for Reliability & Stability DASH 2025 Hiroyuki Moriya AI Engineer IVRy.Inc. 2025/06/11

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2 LLMs can do anything. Easily build amazing products. Perfect self-driving cars within a few years. Automate everything so humans don’t need to work anymore.

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3 Easily build amazing products. Perfect self-driving cars within a few years. Automate everything so humans don’t need to work anymore. LLMs can do anything. Not really.

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4 What is necessary for providing LLM-powered service in production? Today’s Topic

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5 About me Develop products that integrate LLM APIs Monitor & optimize LLM APIs for reliability and performance Hiroyuki Moriya AI engineer / SRE Speaker Intro

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6 About IVRy Challenges Solutions Recap & Tips Agenda

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7 Founded/HQ: 2019. Tokyo, Japan Number of employees: 200+ people Product: AI/LLM based phone communication service Reach: 30,000+ accounts & 40 million+ incoming calls in total IVRy inc. Company Info “Revolutionizing the telephone experience and boosting productivity for businesses ”

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8 AI-powered automated phone service Our Product

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9 Simplified system architecture

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10 Simplified system architecture

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11 Simplified system architecture

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12 Phone calls are still important communication tools in Japan Source: Rakuten Communications, “Survey on Call Handling at Small and Medium-Sized Businesses.”

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13 Trusted across industries

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14 Medical appointments Restaurant reservations Hotel bookings FAQ inquiries We power phone communication with AI for businesses of all sizes IVRy in action

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15 About IVRy Challenges Solutions Recap & Tips Agenda

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16 Three key challenges for AI phone service Robust fault detection & recovery Challenge #3 Minimizing hallucinations Challenge #1 Ensuring natural conversation pace Challenge #2

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17 About IVRy Challenges Solutions Recap & Tips Agenda

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18 Three solutions for AI phone service Robust fault detection & recovery Solution #3 Ensuring natural conversation pace Solution #2 Minimizing hallucinations Solution #1

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19 LLMs can hallucinate Problem

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20 Divide and conquer Solution #1-1

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21 Example AI workflow Break down a task into multiple specialized AI components. → Beer validation and error analysis, leading to more stable & reliable results.

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22 An example of AI workflow in action

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23 Outputs from LLM APIs can change due to silent model updates Problem Output has changed

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24 Trust, but verify Solution #1-2

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25 Monitor LLM API consistency every day Solution 1. Test cases 2. Run consistency tests 3. Notify / record results

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26 Automated phone E2E test

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30 Executing phone E2E tests after code merge Merge code Deploy latest code Execute automated phone E2E tests Monitor on Datadog LLM Observability

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31 Monitoring with Datadog LLM observability

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32 Categorizing topics of test cases

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33 Reservation Cancellation Question Categorizing topics of test cases

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34 To minimize hallucinations, 1 Divide and conquer Divide one task into multiple, easier steps. Trust, but verify Verify LLM API responses regularly. 2 Summary 34

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35 Three solutions for AI phone service Minimizing hallucinations Solution #1 Ensuring natural conversation pace Solution #2 Robust fault detection & recovery Solution #3

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36 Slow dialogue could miss oportunities Problem

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37 Done is beer than perfect Solution #2-1

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38 Fast, stable, and cheap Slower, more $$$ We choose fast, proven models over cuing-edge but slow ones—beer latency, fewer rate limits, lower cost. Stability & performance > latest models

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39 See the forest for the tree Solution #2-2

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40 Monitor metrics with Datadog Inferred Services

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41 Metrics are shown on inferred services page

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42 To ensure natural conversation pace, 1 Done is beer than perfect Choose the model that aligns with your case. See the forest for the tree See the overall metrics for each client. 2 Summary 42

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43 Three solutions for AI phone service Robust fault detection & recovery Solution #3 Minimizing hallucinations Solution #1 Ensuring natural conversation pace Solution #2

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44 System failure could cause fatal issues Problem

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45 LLM APIs connection is not stable. Connectivity issues happen frequently. LLM API Status in one day

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46 Prepare for the worst Solution #3

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47 Created monitoring alerts using custom metrics.

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48 Built a robust fallback system using multiple LLMs. It routes requests based on API statuses. LLM fallback strategy

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49 LLM APIs are called from LiteLLM proxy sidecars ECS Cluster LLM APIs

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50 Using LiteLLM proxy for other applications

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51 Emergency phone transfer

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52 To implement the robust fault detection and recovery, Prepare for the worst Think the worst scenario and implement the robust recovery system. Summary 52

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53 Key lessons for operating LLM APIs Divide and conquer / Trust, but verify 01 for minimizing hallucinations Done is beer than perfect / See the forest for the tree 02 for ensuring natural conversation pace Prepare for the worst 03 for robust fault detection & recovery

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Thank you! Hiroyuki Moriya AI Engineer IVRy.Inc.