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When should you retrain a production machine learning model?
Asked on Oct 29, 2025
Answer
Retraining a production machine learning model is essential to maintain its performance and relevance as the underlying data distribution or business requirements change. This process is typically guided by monitoring model performance metrics, data drift, and business needs.
Example Concept: Retraining a model should be considered when there is a noticeable degradation in performance metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, or F1 score, indicating that the model no longer generalizes well to new data. Additionally, if data drift is detected — where the statistical properties of the input data change over time — or if there are significant updates in business objectives or data sources, retraining becomes necessary to align the model with current conditions.
Additional Comment:
- Monitor model performance regularly using a validation set and key metrics.
- Implement data drift detection mechanisms to identify changes in input data distribution.
- Align retraining schedules with business cycles or significant updates in data sources.
- Utilize MLOps practices to automate retraining workflows for efficiency and consistency.
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