Access to capable models is no longer the bottleneck. Everyone calls the same APIs. The advantage moved to whoever turns a model into a working product loop fastest.
That loop is simple to describe and hard to run: ship a thin version, watch real users, fix the worst failure, repeat. Teams that run it overnight beat teams that plan for a quarter.
The model is a commodity. The loop is the product.
Where Teams Stall
Most teams over-invest in the model and under-invest in the feedback loop around it.
Get something real in front of users and let their behaviour decide what to build next.