Early AI adopters stumble across the horror of vendor lock-in. Here we go again?

Many market watchers are flagging AI vendor lock-in as a risk. When it comes to technology adoption, vendor lock-in is something of an occupational hazard. All tech professionals are aware of it, and yet here we are again, with early adopter executives wondering how they became so dependent on a single supplier.

From the supply-side, of course, having loyal/dependent customers comes with first mover market advantage. AI orchestration platform provider Zapier recently commissioned a survey based on 542 US C-level executives and decision-makers at organizations that currently pay for one or more AI-related vendors. Only respondents with active paid AI vendor contracts were included to ensure findings reflect real operational and financial commitments. The results are in.

AI vendor lock-in is layered

The research itself does not specify what type of AI is being discussed, so it is probably fair to surmise that it is predominantly reflecting adoption of ...