Is AI Becoming A Commodity? Or Is It Just A "Normal" Technology?

As AI vendors hype “recursive self-improvement” and other scary features, we see more and more “mainstreaming” of AI technology in business. In other words, the AI does not solve problems by itself: we as HR and IT leaders need to clearly define our needs and then buy, build, and tune the technologies we buy. Some AI vendors (ie. Paradox, Radancy, Sana, Maki, others) are laser focused on very specific use-cases, and they are delivering solution-first offerings that really add value. The frontier vendors, however, are struggling to do this and much of their revenue still comes from “enabling others” to create solutions. And the new usage-based pricing is forcing this kind of pragmatic thinking. In this podcast I highlight this “commoditization” of core AI features and explain why your “problem identification” work is perhaps the biggest effort in the HR 2030 Agentic HR (https://joshbersin.com/hr2030/) strategy. (Take our new HR 2030 course (https://getgalileo.ai/learn/courses/h...) or sign up for our new Global HR Excellence Certification (https://getgalileo.ai/certification) .) Additional Information Is AI A “Normal” Technology? (https://knightcolumbia.org/content/ai...) The Rise of the Supermanager (https://joshbersin.com/2025/10/the-ri...) Our New Book Superpowered, Coming This Fall! (https://joshbersin.com/superpowered/) New Course: Galileo Is Ready To Teach You What You Need to Know about HR 2030 (https://getgalileo.ai/learn/courses/h...)