Vendor Lock-in Anxiety
Concerns & RisksProvisional
Concern that deep dependence on a single AI vendor creates vulnerability to price increases, outages, or platform changes, prompting contingency planning and a desire for portability across the AI stack
Evidence
“But really I'm about to start writing on "what's your plan B" because I'm so integrated with Claude and Claude products and Anthropic that I don't like it. I feel monopolized. So I am trying to come up with a backup plan for when Claude Code goes down, right? It happens all the time.”
“Price gouging. Yeah. And I'm a plan B kind of person. You know, it's just back up your backup, your backup because I'm just wired that way. And I think it's an important topic of conversation. Like I am really afraid AI is going to create this massive class divide and what happens when Claude is $500 a month or $800, you know, what's your plan B? So, what happens when it goes down? Do you stop working for the day? Like I see people so dependent on it that they're like, I don't know how to work without it anymore.”
“And are the AI vendors going to be like crack dealers that say, "Oh, the first taste is affordable," and then they're going to turn the screws on us and now what? We're stuck with a codebase that no monkey in the company can grok, right? And so you're stuck. You need the AI to support the AI because Pandora's box has been opened and this is just one sphere of it, right? I try to push all that aside because I'm having fun with the shiny new toy and trying to figure out how to best use it.”