Too good to be true? Avoid free AI token offers — or risk vendor lock-in
Tech industry experts are urging IT decision-makers to be wary of AI vendor gimmicks such as free tokens, and to adopt a multi-vendor and multi-model strategy to avoid vendor lock-in. “Don’t be afraid to adopt a multi-vendor approach to get value from different AI tools rather than risk lock-in with a single one,” said Max Goss, senior director analyst at Gartner. It is unlikely one AI vendor or model will meet an organization’s requirements, Goss said. The advice comes as more AI vendors are offering cheap tokens subsidized by venture capital in a land grab for customers. The companies are also hiring forward-deployed engineers (FDEs) to push their models to enterprises. Once companies start developing business processes around specific AI models, they get locked into their ecosystem. “People are adopting hybrid strategies…to cut token costs, and adopting more token-efficient models,” said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. Free and low-cost tokens from AI vendors cou