Cut AI chatbot costs by reusing answers to similar questions

flowchart TD trig>"customer asks a question"]:::trig s0["receive incoming question"]:::task s1["check cache for similar question"]:::svc s2["return answer"]:::task trig --> s0 s0 --> s1 gx{"× cache hit or miss"}:::gate s1 --> gx p00["return cached answer"]:::task gx -->|"cache hit"| p00 p10["query AI model"]:::task gx -->|"cache miss"| p10 p11["save new answer to cache"]:::task p10 --> p11 jn{"○ answer delivered"}:::gate p00 --> jn p11 --> jn jn --> s2 out[/"answer returned to user"/]:::out pay{{"lower AI API costs"}}:::pay s2 --> out out --> pay classDef task fill:#e7f6fe,stroke:#34b8f0,color:#2c2a29 classDef svc fill:#f6f8fa,stroke:#7c8795,color:#2c2a29 classDef mi fill:#e7f6fe,stroke:#0079a8,color:#2c2a29,stroke-width:2px classDef human fill:#fff,stroke:#0079a8,color:#0079a8 classDef store fill:#f6f8fa,stroke:#0079a8,color:#2c2a29 classDef trig fill:#00a4eb,stroke:#0079a8,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef trigtime fill:#00a4eb,stroke:#0079a8,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef trigdata fill:#8ad4f5,stroke:#0079a8,color:#06314c,font-weight:bold classDef gate fill:#fff,stroke:#e8a23d,color:#6b4708,font-weight:bold classDef out fill:#1f9d6b,stroke:#167a53,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef pay fill:#06314c,stroke:#021f33,color:#fff