Vertical AI winners are decided by the ownership of non-public industry datasets.
As software code and model architectures commoditize, long-term defensibility in highly specialized markets shifts entirely to controlling exclusive, non-public datasets.
The same conclusion keeps arriving from across the workspace's research — 2 topics independently instantiate this theme. Filter the evidence by where it came from:
It underscores that the most successful vertical fintechs win by utilizing specialized, non-public operational data to accurately manage industry-specific risk.
It asserts that proprietary data ownership—such as exclusive SMA databases—acts as the ultimate defensive moat against commoditized model interfaces in vertical AI.
Rather than proprietary models, SAP is relying on its core systems of record and structured enterprise data graphs as its ultimate long-term moat.