---
id: "prereq-llm-operations"
type: "prereq"
source_timestamps: ["§ The Incumbent's Energy Playbook", "¶12"]
tags: ["ai-engineering", "optimization"]
related: ["action-reduce-demand", "concept-intelligence-per-watt"]
reason: "Required to execute the demand-reduction strategies recommended in the playbook."
sources: ["futures"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-futures"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-nm-101-energy-strategy-ai"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/your-company-needs-an-energy-strategy-for-ais-next-phase"
sourceTitle: "Your Company Needs an Energy Strategy for AI’s Next Phase"
---
# LLM Operations and Optimization

## What you need to know
The source assumes familiarity with technical AI concepts such as **frontier models, tokens, inference, prompt compression, and model quantization.**

## Why it's required
Required to execute the demand-reduction strategies in [[action-reduce-demand]] and to interpret the [[concept-intelligence-per-watt]] metric (which is denominated in tokens/inferences per kWh).