You don't have an AI strategy. You have a vendor dependency.

Most companies think they have an AI strategy. They actually have a dependency on three cloud providers controlling 63% of the infrastructure everything runs on.

This isn't a new pattern. Railroads, oil, telecommunications — every major infrastructure shift created companies that started as enablers and eventually became gatekeepers.

AI is following the same playbook. The difference is how quickly lock-in compounds. When your models, data pipelines, and compute all live inside the same provider ecosystem, you haven't just adopted AI. You've adopted someone else's roadmap. And switching costs aren't theoretical. They're architectural, contractual, and growing every quarter.

For European SMEs, the problem is even sharper. Large enterprises can negotiate. Startups can sometimes rebuild. Mid-market companies are stuck in between: too dependent to walk away, too small to set the terms.

So the question isn't whether your AI provider is good today. It's what happens when you need to leave.

How many companies actually have a real AI strategy — and how many have simply adopted their vendor's roadmap?