At Data Council 2025, I gave a talk titled “The Model Is the Product”.

In AI products, the model increasingly determines what the system can do and why customers choose it. This talk traces that shift from hardware differentiation such as “Intel Inside,” through software, to model-centric products. It also distinguishes two strategies: competing on model capability or competing on distribution. Case studies show the trade-offs behind each and explain the thesis: “the model is the product; distribution is the moat.”