Small Language Model (SLM)

In practical terms, Small Language Model (SLM) is a language model designed with fewer parameters and lower compute requirements than very large models, often for focused or resource-constrained use cases. It is especially relevant when teams are building LLM applications that must balance usefulness, cost, latency, security, evaluation, and reliable access to data or tools. Related concepts often include governance, integration, monitoring, evaluation, and human oversight.