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Morenathancheng
#Tech #tech #business/models #opinion
DeepSeek isn't a victory for the AI sceptics
DeepSeek isn't a victory for the AI sceptics
we now know that as the price of computing equipment fell, new use cases emerged to fill the gap – which is why today my lightbulbs have semiconductors inside them, and I occasionally have to install firmware updates my doorbell.
surely the compute freed up by more efficient models will be used to train models even harder, and apply even more “brain power” to coming up with responses? Even if DeepSeek is dramatically more efficient, the logical thing to do will be to use the excess capacity to ensure the answers are even smarter.
ure, if DeepSeek heralds a new era of much leaner LLMs, it’s not great news in the short term if you’re a shareholder in Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta or Google.6 But if DeepSeek is the enormous breakthrough it appears, it just became even cheaper to train and use the most sophisticated models humans have so far built, by one or more orders of magnitude. Which is amazing news for big tech, because it means that AI usage is going to be even more ubiquitous.
#business#tech#news#discourse/counterclaims#business/models#capitalism#opinion#ai#companies/DeepSeek#companies/OpenAI
·takes.jamesomalley.co.uk·
DeepSeek isn't a victory for the AI sceptics
Your "Per-Seat" Margin is My Opportunity
Your "Per-Seat" Margin is My Opportunity

Traditional software is sold on a per seat subscription. More humans, more money. We are headed to a future where AI agents will replace the work humans do. But you can’t charge agents a per seat cost. So we’re headed to a world where software will be sold on a consumption model (think tasks) and then on an outcome model (think job completed) Incumbents will be forced to adapt but it’s classic innovators dilemma. How do you suddenly give up all that subscription revenue? This gives an opportunity for startups to win.

Per-seat pricing only works when your users are human. But when agents become the primary users of software, that model collapses.
Executives aren't evaluating software against software anymore. They're comparing the combined costs of software licenses plus labor against pure outcome-based solutions. Think customer support (per resolved ticket vs. per agent + seat), marketing (per campaign vs. headcount), sales (per qualified lead vs. rep). That's your pricing umbrella—the upper limit enterprises will pay before switching entirely to AI.
enterprises are used to deterministic outcomes and fixed annual costs. Usage-based pricing makes budgeting harder. But individual leaders seeing 10x efficiency gains won't wait for procurement to catch up. Savvy managers will find ways around traditional buying processes.
This feels like a generational reset of how businesses operate. Zero upfront costs, pay only for outcomes—that's not just a pricing model. That's the future of business.
The winning strategy in my books? Give the platform away for free. Let your agents read and write to existing systems through unstructured data—emails, calls, documents. Once you handle enough workflows, you become the new system of record.
#trends#business/models#business/strategy#product design#opinion#ai#LLMs#tech#startups
·writing.nikunjk.com·
Your "Per-Seat" Margin is My Opportunity