alt Hacker NewsSo where would this increased demand come from?
We see that these companies have no moat.
We see that companies are already balking at the cost and are increasingly looking at what the actual return of their current spend is, let alone when these prices have been increasing.
Where is the increase in demand going to be coming from? Especially the increase needed to make this make sense?
Replies
If you believe in the notion that the technology will improve to the point of being able to replace a human employee, the increase in demand is going to come from businesses that choose AI employees over human ones. Even if the AI employee costs more than human one, it's like a car vs a horse. The AI employee doesn't get sick, doesn't get into trouble with HR for sexual harassment, never comes into work hung over. You can hire 100 AI employees for a week and them fire them the next and not feel bad about it.
Whether this comes to pass is anyone's guess, but that's the theory.
My personal hunch is that the “diffusion curve” for AI is slower than most people in this space think. Most businesspeople I talk to have only tried a basic Copilot chat and/or free ChatGPT. Many still haven’t used anything “AI” at all. As more use cases become practicable and cost-effective, more software will include AI, and more people will use AI with or without knowing.
Also: note that the Wall Street analyst estimates Ed cites (and then declares impossible targets) are predictions by serious people with a lot of money at stake. Of course they could be wrong, but they’re not made up.