Claude Sonnet 4: Why Slower AI 'Thinking' Is a Feature

8/12/2025

Why Claude Sonnet 4's "Thinking" Delays Are a Feature, Not a Flaw

Hey everyone, let's talk about something that feels a bit counterintuitive in the world of AI: speed. We're all conditioned to want things faster. Instant search results, instant downloads, instant answers. So when an AI model takes a few extra seconds to "think," it's easy to get impatient & maybe even a little skeptical. But here's the thing: with the new generation of AI like Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4, that extra pause isn't a bug. It's one of its most powerful features.

Honestly, the release of Claude Sonnet 4 & its more powerful sibling, Opus 4, in May 2025 really shifted the conversation. It's not just about getting an answer anymore; it's about getting the right answer, especially when the problems are messy, complex, & have a ton of moving parts. This is where Sonnet 4 shines, & a big part of its magic lies in its ability to deliberately slow down.

I want to dive deep into why this "extended thinking," as Anthropic calls it, is such a game-changer & why, for anyone tackling serious work, it's absolutely worth the wait.

The Problem with "Fast" AI

For years, the race was all about speed & raw performance on leaderboards. Who can answer the fastest? Who can generate code in a split second? That was great for simple queries, brainstorming, or summarizing a document. But when you start pushing these models with genuinely hard problems, you see the cracks.

Think about the last time you asked an AI to help with a complex project. Maybe it was debugging a massive codebase, developing a multi-stage marketing strategy, or analyzing a dense financial report for subtle trends. A "fast" AI might give you a plausible-sounding but shallow answer. It might miss crucial context, take logical shortcuts, or even "hallucinate" information because it's optimized for a quick response, not deep reasoning.

This is because true intelligence, whether human or artificial, often requires deliberation. It requires a moment to break a problem down, explore different angles, weigh potential outcomes, & synthesize a coherent, robust solution. Rushing the process leads to sloppy work.

Enter Claude Sonnet 4 & "Extended Thinking"

Anthropic clearly saw this limitation & decided to tackle it head-on. With the Claude 4 family, they introduced a groundbreaking hybrid reasoning approach. This means you can choose between a near-instant response for quick tasks or engage "extended thinking" for when you need the AI to go deep.

So, what is "extended thinking"?

It's essentially a mode where the model is allowed more time & computational resources to work on a problem. Instead of just spitting out the first statistically likely answer, it engages in a more methodical process. During this time, Sonnet 4 can:

Break Down Complex Prompts: It deconstructs your request into smaller, manageable sub-problems.
Utilize Tools: This is HUGE. Sonnet 4 can pause its reasoning, use tools like a web search to pull in real-time information or a calculator for precise figures, & then integrate that external data back into its thought process.
Perform Multi-Step Reasoning: It can create a chain of logical steps, much like a human would. If step A, then step B, but consider outlier C, & then conclude with D.
Self-Correct: A longer thinking time allows the model to evaluate its own intermediate steps & correct its course if it's heading down a wrong path.

This isn't just about making the progress bar move slower. It's about what's happening behind the scenes. Anthropic even provides "thinking summaries" to give users a glimpse into this reasoning chain, making the whole process more transparent.

The Concrete Benefits of Waiting a Few Extra Seconds

Okay, so it "thinks" longer. What does that actually mean for you? The benefits are pretty substantial, especially for professionals & businesses.

1. Unprecedented Accuracy in Complex Tasks

This is the big one. For tasks where accuracy is non-negotiable, the trade-off for speed is a no-brainer. Claude Sonnet 4 is proving to be incredibly capable in areas that have traditionally been tough for AI.

Its coding capabilities, for instance, are state-of-the-art. It scored a remarkable 72.7% on the SWE-bench, a benchmark that tests the ability to solve real-world software engineering problems. This isn't just about writing simple Python scripts. It's about navigating complex codebases, understanding dependencies, & refactoring code with a high degree of precision—tasks that demand careful, step-by-step logic. Cognition, the AI company, noted that Opus 4 (the bigger model in the family) successfully handles critical actions that other models completely miss.

This same accuracy extends to other domains like financial analysis, legal document review, & scientific research, where a single missed detail can have massive consequences.

2. Truly "Agentic" Workflows

The term "AI agent" gets thrown around a lot, but the Claude 4 family is making it a reality. An agent is an AI that can perform complex, multi-step tasks autonomously over a long period. Think of an AI you could assign to "monitor our competitor's marketing strategy for the next month & provide a weekly summary of changes, key messaging, & potential opportunities for us."

This requires sustained focus, memory, & the ability to use tools—all hallmarks of the extended thinking mode. A "fast" AI would lose the plot after the first step. Sonnet 4, however, can run these long-running workflows, remember context from previous interactions, & execute a plan. This is HUGE for businesses looking to automate complex processes.

For example, a business could use an AI agent powered by Sonnet 4 to manage customer support escalations. The agent could analyze the initial ticket, search the company's knowledge base for solutions, & if needed, even query internal databases before presenting a human agent with a comprehensive summary & a suggested resolution. This level of automation requires that deliberate, step-by-step process.

3. More Reliable & Steerable AI

One of the biggest frustrations with AI can be its unpredictability. You give it a prompt, & it goes off on a tangent. Anthropic has focused heavily on "steerability" with Sonnet 4, & the slower thinking process is a key part of that.

Because it's reasoning in a more structured way, it's better at following intricate instructions. You can give it a complex set of constraints & rules, & it's more likely to adhere to them. It's also 65% less likely to take shortcuts in agentic tasks compared to its predecessor, Sonnet 3.7. This makes it a much more reliable partner for high-stakes work.

This is where integrating a tool like Arsturn comes into play. Imagine you run a business & want to provide truly helpful, nuanced customer support. You could build a chatbot with Arsturn, trained on your company's specific data—product manuals, FAQs, past support tickets, etc. When a customer asks a complex, multi-part question, you don't want a fast, generic answer. You want a thoughtful one. By connecting to a model like Sonnet 4, the Arsturn chatbot could leverage that "extended thinking" to provide a detailed, accurate, & personalized response. It could analyze the user's entire query, cross-reference multiple documents in its knowledge base, & formulate a complete solution, providing the kind of high-quality support that builds customer loyalty. The chatbot isn't just pattern-matching keywords; it's problem-solving.

Sonnet vs. Opus: A Quick Word on the Family

It's worth noting that Sonnet 4 is designed to be the balanced model in the Claude 4 family.

Haiku (from the Claude 3 family) is the fastest, built for near-instant responsiveness in simple applications like content moderation or basic customer chats.
Sonnet 4 is the workhorse. It balances high performance with efficiency, making it perfect for the vast majority of enterprise tasks like complex coding, data analysis, & scaling up business processes.
Opus 4 is the most powerful model, designed for the most intellectually demanding tasks—pushing the frontiers of scientific research, analyzing extremely complex financial models, etc.

For most businesses & professionals, Sonnet 4 hits the sweet spot. It provides access to that deep reasoning capability without the top-tier cost of Opus 4.

The Business Case for Deliberate AI

So, how does this translate into a business advantage? It's all about moving from simple automation to genuine augmentation.

Fast AI is good for automating repetitive, low-level tasks. Deliberate AI, like Sonnet 4, augments the capabilities of your best people.

Lead Generation & Personalization: A generic, fast chatbot might be able to capture a name & email. But what if you could do more? With a platform like Arsturn, businesses can build no-code AI chatbots trained on their marketing data & case studies. When a potential lead visits your website, the chatbot can engage in a deep, meaningful conversation. It can ask intelligent questions about their needs, understand the nuances of their industry, & recommend specific solutions or content from your site. This "slower," more thoughtful interaction is WAY more effective at qualifying leads & boosting conversions than a simple pop-up form. It feels like talking to a smart sales consultant, not a robot.
Boosting Developer Productivity: Developers can offload incredibly complex tasks to Sonnet 4, like debugging an entire module or translating a legacy codebase to a new language. The AI's ability to "think" through the problem saves countless hours of manual work & allows developers to focus on higher-level architecture & innovation.
Elevating Customer Experience: As mentioned before, the quality of customer support can make or break a business. Using a sophisticated model in your support system means you can resolve more issues on the first contact, understand customer frustration better, & provide solutions that are genuinely helpful. This is how you create brand advocates.

Final Thoughts

The narrative around AI is maturing. We're moving past the initial "wow" factor of instant answers & starting to ask more sophisticated questions about reliability, accuracy, & depth. Claude Sonnet 4 is at the forefront of this shift.

It's a bold statement for Anthropic to essentially say, "Sometimes, the best answer takes a little more time." But it's a statement that resonates with anyone who has ever wrestled with a truly difficult problem. The extra few seconds you wait for Sonnet 4 to respond aren't a sign of slowness; they're a sign of intelligence at work. It's the pause before a thoughtful insight, the silence before a breakthrough idea.

For businesses & individuals looking to solve real, complex problems, that's not just worth the wait—it's a competitive advantage.

Hope this was helpful! Let me know what you think.