The talk compared basic retrieve-then-generate systems with advanced and agentic RAG patterns. It examined the progression trap: each added layer can multiply cost and operational complexity while producing only a marginal accuracy gain.
What the session covered
- Basic, advanced, agentic, graph-based, recursive, and real-time RAG architectures
- The cost and latency differences between a simple RAG application and multi-agent retrieval
- Data quality, metadata, document lifecycles, and mixed source formats
- Evaluation, debugging, failure points, and infrastructure demands
- Choosing the simplest modular architecture that meets the business requirement
The central question was not whether a more sophisticated RAG system can be built, but whether its additional complexity creates enough measurable value to justify operating it.