Why Customers Who Tried Claude, GPT and Grok Still Fail to Replace Vertical AI Products
MartinGTobias · x · 2026-11-10
Martin Tobias notes a recurring pitch from vertical AI startups: "our customers already tried to use Claude, GPT, and Grok to do what we do and they failed." His takeaway: just because everyone can replicate a product's function with general-purpose LLMs doesn't mean they should. Domain expertise, workflow integration, and continuous tuning form moats that swapping in a base model can't replace — a useful lens on how value is splitting between foundation models and applied AI companies.
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