Which AI is better — with a wrapper or without?

I liked a slide from the recent presentation Sequoia Capital AI Ascent 2025.

Big vendors after the launch of ChatGPT insisted that niche and industrial startups consuming AGI intelligence are unpromising.

They disdainfully called them AI wrappers, believing that they have no protection against competitors.

A couple of years later, we observe record growth precisely in such companies as Cursor ($300 million ARR), Loveable, Windsurf (bought by OpenAI for $3 billion), and thousands of new industrial startups — in finance, insurance, e-commerce, legal, accounting, healthcare, and other sectors.

Meanwhile, AI tokens are becoming the fastest depreciating technology and currency in history.

According to Sam Altman himself, over time the cost of AI will equal the cost of energy.

Giants have started giving access to their most powerful AI models to seize leadership in the new technological era.

I have already written about a unique market moment: when, being an expert in any subject area, you combine your knowledge with the growing capabilities of AI — and get a tool that solves real human problems for which clients are ready to pay immediately.

Now these very AI wrappers have turned into serious businesses.

The obvious challenge for entrepreneurs is that AI skills and specialists are increasing in value much faster than other segments of the IT market.

Startups and mature companies with subject matter experts already face difficulties attracting strong AI engineers, but at the same time, according to the results of the first internal hackathons, I see a rapid increase in the number of those who caught the trend and felt in AI a breath of fresh air in the enterprise world.

In the coming years, young founders and enthusiasts who live by technology, see trends ahead, and tirelessly experiment by creating new products will win rapidly.

Time to act!