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Key Takeaways Because the AI technology race is being contested by both AI-focused emerging businesses and well-established tech giants, you must decide today whether to invest in the latest tech from newcomers or wait for the incumbents to catch up.
Those who invest in the new-to-market AI leaders will be the first to benefit from the technology and can get a leg up on their competition, but they face the risk of constant change and never seeing ROI.
Those who choose to wait for established players to create native AI solutions will maintain more stability and have the option to invest when returns are clear, but risk falling behind and potentially never catching up.
If you’re a business leader, you have an important decision awaiting you today. Will your company invest in emerging AI technology before the dust settles in the race for AI supremacy? Or will you maintain the status quo, dabble a bit in AI and save most of your chips for when the cards are clear?
Whatever you decide, it will impact your business. But the only wrong decision today is not having a clear strategy for how you will invest in AI. This article will help you crystallize your decision.
Before we dive into the pros and cons of each direction, let’s understand the ecosystem players. The race is being contested across three categories.
First, the frontier AI labs. These are companies built with the core purpose of creating the AI infrastructure of the future. In the enterprise market, the leaders are Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI (GPT), with Mistral and DeepSeek also making progress.
Second, the emerging businesses developing AI-native enterprise solutions. This is a growing marketplace where companies like Clay, Bland and others are playing. These plug-and-play technologies give you a rapid way to AI-ify your workflow and access a go-to-market strategy.
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