Aug 28, 2026 • 1 min read
Models Become Commodities
The model may become one of the least interesting parts of an AI product. The model is intelligence; the harness turns intelligence into useful work — and that is where the durable advantage sits.
Part 4 of 7 — AI, Software Factories, and the Future of Work
Models Become Commodities
The model might become one of the least interesting parts of an AI product.
That sounds strange today because every few weeks we obsess over which model tops which benchmark.
But models are converging incredibly quickly.
A task where Model A is substantially ahead today might belong to Model B three months from now.
And increasingly, applications can simply switch between them.
The durable advantage moves one layer up.
What context did you provide?
How did you break down the problem?
Which tools did the model have?
How did you verify its output?
What happens when it fails?
What does the system remember from previous runs?
How effectively can multiple agents work together?
The model is intelligence.
The harness turns intelligence into useful work.
As models improve and commoditize, I suspect companies will increasingly differentiate on the systems they've built around them.
The winning AI applications may ultimately care about models the same way cloud applications care about CPUs.
Important.
Necessary.
But interchangeable.