If You Can't Run It, It Runs You

On why owning your own AI is quietly becoming the new corporate literacy - and why the companies that treat it as a subscription will one day find the subscription treating them. The Misconception"AI is a utility. You plug in, you prompt, you prosper." This is the comfortable story. The model lives somewhere in the cloud, like electricity or tap water, and your job is simply to consume it. Nobody builds their own power plant, so why would anyone run their own model? Pay the monthly fee, paste your spreadsheet into the chat box, and let the magic happen. It is a lovely story. It is also roughly the same story people told themselves about renting an office, outsourcing their customer database, and storing all their photos on a service that later "sunset" them with a cheerful email. The QuestionIf every productivity gain in your business flows through a model you do not control, cannot inspect, cannot run without an internet connection, and cannot keep when the pricing page quietly gains…