A model-agnostic mid-life crisis.

The industry is waking up to the commoditization of intelligence. Smart organizations have stopped trying to marry the model and are instead building workflows that can swap Model X for Model Y the second one gets smarter or, more likely, cheaper. 

In a world where benchmarks are leapfrogged every Tuesday, loyalty is a liability. This isn't dating; it’s a supply chain. We’ve learned that models are engines, while proprietary data is the only specialized fuel left. A medium-sized model fed on gold-standard internal data will outperform a general-purpose giant every time. It is time to stop obsessing over the math and start obsessing over the quality of the gas.

This guy looks like a chronic dater.

We are also finally seeing that AI is essentially a very confident intern with an infinite library card. Success is defined by the rigorous guardrails and verification layers you build to ensure that intern doesn’t accidentally incinerate the department’s reputation. 

The value has shifted entirely from the output to the outcome. It is no longer about what the model says, but what the system actually does. The winners are those building the orchestration layer—the logic that sits above the models to solve a concrete business problem. 

Maybe I’m dreaming, but the companies actually surviving are the ones that realized the model might just become the least interesting part of the stack ...