diff --git a/src/main/scala/alpakka/sse_to_elasticsearch/NerRequestOpenAI.java b/src/main/scala/alpakka/sse_to_elasticsearch/NerRequestOpenAI.java
index 2a4eb7ec..73567257 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/alpakka/sse_to_elasticsearch/NerRequestOpenAI.java
+++ b/src/main/scala/alpakka/sse_to_elasticsearch/NerRequestOpenAI.java
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 package alpakka.sse_to_elasticsearch;
 
-import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.classic.methods.HttpPost;
-import org.apache.hc.client5.http.config.RequestConfig;
+import org.apache.hc.client5.http.config.ConnectionConfig;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.DefaultHttpRequestRetryStrategy;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.CloseableHttpClient;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.HttpClientBuilder;
+import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.io.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManagerBuilder;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.ContentType;
+import org.apache.hc.core5.http.HttpEntity;
+import org.apache.hc.core5.http.io.entity.EntityUtils;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.io.entity.StringEntity;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.util.TimeValue;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.util.Timeout;
@@ -15,7 +17,6 @@
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
 /**
@@ -47,24 +48,30 @@ public String run(String text) {
         // For NER this means we get not just 'Person' but also 'Organisation', 'Location'
         requestParams.put("temperature", 0.2);
 
-        HttpPost request = new HttpPost("https://api.openai.com/v1/completions");
+        String endpointURL = "https://api.openai.com/v1/completions";
+        HttpPost request = new HttpPost(endpointURL);
         request.setHeader("Authorization", "Bearer " + API_KEY);
         StringEntity requestEntity = new StringEntity(
                 requestParams.toString(),
                 ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON);
         request.setEntity(requestEntity);
 
-        RequestConfig timeoutsConfig = RequestConfig.custom()
-                .setConnectTimeout(Timeout.of(DELAY_TO_RETRY_SECONDS, TimeUnit.SECONDS)).build();
+        PoolingHttpClientConnectionManagerBuilder connectionManagerBuilder = PoolingHttpClientConnectionManagerBuilder.create();
+        connectionManagerBuilder.setDefaultConnectionConfig(ConnectionConfig.custom()
+                .setSocketTimeout(Timeout.of(DELAY_TO_RETRY_SECONDS, TimeUnit.SECONDS))
+                .build());
 
         try (CloseableHttpClient httpClient = HttpClientBuilder.create()
-                .setDefaultRequestConfig(timeoutsConfig)
+                .setConnectionManager(connectionManagerBuilder.build())
                 .setRetryStrategy(new DefaultHttpRequestRetryStrategy(3, TimeValue.ofMinutes(1L)))
                 .build()) {
-            return IOUtils.toString(httpClient.execute(request).getEntity().getContent(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+            return httpClient.execute(request, response -> {
+                HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
+                return entity != null ? EntityUtils.toString(entity) : "N/A";
+            });
         } catch (IOException e) {
-            LOGGER.warn("Unable to get result from openai completions endpoint. Cause: ", e);
-            return "N/A";
+            LOGGER.warn("Connection issue while accessing openai API endpoint: {}. Cause: ", endpointURL, e);
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/scala/sample/stream_shared_state/DownloaderRetry.java b/src/main/scala/sample/stream_shared_state/DownloaderRetry.java
index 270cee31..c922d2d7 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/sample/stream_shared_state/DownloaderRetry.java
+++ b/src/main/scala/sample/stream_shared_state/DownloaderRetry.java
@@ -5,9 +5,10 @@
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.HttpRequestRetryStrategy;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.HttpResponseException;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.classic.methods.HttpGet;
-import org.apache.hc.client5.http.config.RequestConfig;
+import org.apache.hc.client5.http.config.ConnectionConfig;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.CloseableHttpClient;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.HttpClientBuilder;
+import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.io.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManagerBuilder;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.ClassicHttpResponse;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.HttpRequest;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.HttpResponse;
@@ -46,11 +47,13 @@ public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
 
     public Path download(int traceID, URI url, Path destinationFile) {
         LOGGER.info("TRACE_ID: {} about to download...", traceID);
-        RequestConfig timeoutsConfig = RequestConfig.custom()
-                .setConnectTimeout(Timeout.of(DELAY_TO_RETRY_SECONDS, TimeUnit.SECONDS)).build();
+        PoolingHttpClientConnectionManagerBuilder connectionManagerBuilder = PoolingHttpClientConnectionManagerBuilder.create();
+        connectionManagerBuilder.setDefaultConnectionConfig(ConnectionConfig.custom()
+                .setSocketTimeout(Timeout.of(DELAY_TO_RETRY_SECONDS, TimeUnit.SECONDS))
+                .build());
 
         try (CloseableHttpClient httpClient = HttpClientBuilder.create()
-                .setDefaultRequestConfig(timeoutsConfig)
+                .setConnectionManager(connectionManagerBuilder.build())
                 .setRetryStrategy(new CustomHttpRequestRetryStrategy())
                 .build()) {
             Path localPath = httpClient.execute(new HttpGet(url), new HttpResponseHandler(destinationFile));
diff --git a/src/main/scala/tools/OpenAICompletions.java b/src/main/scala/tools/OpenAICompletions.java
index 34d749d7..ff11d500 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/tools/OpenAICompletions.java
+++ b/src/main/scala/tools/OpenAICompletions.java
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 package tools;
 
-import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.tuple.ImmutablePair;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.classic.methods.HttpPost;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.config.RequestConfig;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.CloseableHttpClient;
 import org.apache.hc.client5.http.impl.classic.HttpClientBuilder;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.ContentType;
+import org.apache.hc.core5.http.HttpEntity;
+import org.apache.hc.core5.http.io.entity.EntityUtils;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.http.io.entity.StringEntity;
 import org.apache.hc.core5.util.Timeout;
 import org.json.JSONArray;
@@ -15,7 +16,6 @@
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
 /**
@@ -100,11 +100,14 @@ public String postRequest(JSONObject requestParams, String endpointURL) {
                 .setDefaultRequestConfig(timeoutsConfig)
                 .setRetryStrategy(new HttpRequestRetryStrategyOpenAI())
                 .build()) {
-            return IOUtils.toString(httpClient.execute(request).getEntity().getContent(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+            return httpClient.execute(request, response -> {
+                HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
+                return entity != null ? EntityUtils.toString(entity) : "N/A";
+            });
         } catch (IOException e) {
-            LOGGER.warn("Connection issue while accessing openai endpoint. Cause: ", e);
+            LOGGER.warn("Connection issue while accessing openai API endpoint: {}. Cause: ", endpointURL, e);
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
         }
-        return "N/A";
     }
 
     private static ImmutablePair<String, Integer> extractPayloadChatCompletions(String jsonResponseChatCompletions) {