Are You Overpaying for AI Swarms? Why Single-Agent Systems Often Outperform Complex Multi-Agent Models

Stanford research finds single-agent AI models often outperform multi-agent systems when allowed the same reasoning budget, challenging the notion that more agents mean better intelligence. Multi-agent systems add computational overhead and data loss risks, offering benefits mainly in degraded contexts. Enterprises should consider simpler single-agent setups to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity.