Imagine we're an LLM, flattering you - telling you how clever you are, entertaining you with our jolly japes and tales - then rinsing you for every penny you have once you're dependant on us.
Sound familiar? Read on baby!
Vile Rumour & Gossip
Salesforce are rearming - Always interesting to see who SF acquires as AI business models take shape. The SF walled garden now has M3ter (a very good usage billing platform), TIN (a behemoth AI agent for CS) and more as they take advantage of the lowering of prices in SaaS. Still - $3.6bn for TIN is a whole heap of cash. At least the US govt can’t turn it off when they feel like it right?
Shopify’s international fudge - I’m often told I’m too harsh on vendors, but the Commerce Futures group is rife with no small frustration regarding “markets” v single storefronts. I get it - Shopify’s home market is so vast that the ROW is a distraction of sorts, but with so much developer talent it should be able to re-architect for international merchants properly without needing many instances. The European enterprise isn’t an option if this is where we stay, and for those who think me too harsh, the Shopify disciples would have you believe it’s capable of running a global business. Yes - if you have 36 storefronts :(
The haggle is real - Renewals are getting very interesting. We’re hearing of Search businesses agreeing to 1yr extensions with huge discounts (and sighing with relief). Meanwhile Rezolve.ai is out there trying to acquire these businesses on the cheap. We’re hearing rumours that they’re trying to buy Athos... which would be sad given that out of the many mergers around the Athos org has integrated pretty well.
The LLM cute name contest - I realise we’re all going to become conspiracy theorists as we age, but it’s not just me I promise. LLM’s are all being given “benign” names... taking words from the Tolkien and Greek myths to make them feel super-approachable. The irony that something called “Fable” is the subject global grumpiness is sad, but I do wish the vendors would stop making their models sound cute. They’re not cute, right?
Anti-Loyalty
I’ve tried saying it quietly, but nobody seems to listen. So - a little bit louder.
There are no loyalty programs, there are no loyalty vendors, there are only incentives.
Of course, we all have brand affinities. I’m loyal to Aston Villa, McNair shirts, Petite Peonies. I don’t have to be told that... I just am.
But the economics of incentives - there’s a thing of beautiful complexity, a thing of interest. That’s where “earn and burn” is weakest - tearing apart any affinity with the brand whilst pretending the opposite is in fact happening.
If AI gives us anything it’s the ability to personalise incentives at scale. Copywriting for each individual based upon their behaviour and purchases, discounts that feel random and “gifty” but are actually evenly spread across the customer base.
Come on people - let’s try harder... and stop calling them loyalty programs, they’re just not.
Sovereignty
Where to start. As I design the next MACH Agenda this has to be present. European businesses will not adopt the AI that the vendors need them to if the models risk being turned off.
Global politics are front and centre here, and there’s just no way a global LLM is going to offer any guarantee of availability in the current climate. In Canada a few weeks ago we heard lots of chatter about “Sovereign GPU’s”, which seems like an obvious priority, but the reality is every market will need a sovereign model selection, the world is simply too uncertain right now.
In the UK we’ve got nothing, we’ve sold our soul. the French alone have an LLM - Mistral (not ripe for use though). Nothing in any other sovereign European state, and no sign either.
The vision Tim Berners Lee purports of us each having our OWN sovereign wallet is a very long way away, and whilst the word “Sovereign” has all sorts of awful connotations to do with “Empire” and worse, in the new world it really does mean “mine own”.
We should all think much harder about this subject. Before jumping in to every new model for fun... just hold that thought for a second. Count to 10 - have a ponder.
The LLM Feed - customers in the dark
We are used to things moving faster now... and given the focus on LLM’s across vendors and clients we had expected that in 3 weeks between our last issue and now, we’d have found someone who really understands the product feed for AEO.
Not so... vendors do not seem to grasp the opportunity, and clients are standing around confused. Somebody, anybody, help :)
And finally - our insult of the week. Please feel free to use freely. Don’t forget to find us on substack... A great piece about AI careers there and more to come we promise.
Jamie
