Systems, apparatuses and methods may provide for technology that processes an inference workload in a first subset of layers of a neural network that prevents or inhibits data dependent branch operations, conducts an exit determination as to whether an output of the first subset of layers satisfies one or more exit criteria, and selectively bypasses processing of the output in a second subset of layers of the neural network based on the exit determination. The technology may also speculatively initiate the processing of the output in the second subset of layers while the exit determination is pending. Additionally, when the inference workloads include a plurality of batches, the technology may mask one or more of the plurality of batches from processing in the second subset of layers.