Structured output is the difference between asking a model to write something and asking it to return data Laravel can safely use. When an AI feature affects routing, storage, automation, or product decisions, the response needs a contract: fields, types, allowed values, validation rules, and a fallback path. Plain text is useful for explanations, drafts, summaries, and human review. But when Laravel needs to classify a ticket, extract invoice fields, choose a workflow, or store a result, ...