Chi-Hua Chien, a venture capitalist with over twenty years of experience, foresaw the rise of Facebook. Today, he makes an equally disruptive prediction: the true winners of the AI era will not be the companies selling artificial intelligence. They will be those who use it to build tangible value in their respective industries.
This reading radically changes strategic priorities. Therefore, it's no longer about choosing the best language model or the most expensive platform. It's about understanding where AI can compress operating costs, accelerate sales cycles, or improve customer experience. Furthermore, Italian SMEs—often excluded from the tech debate—find themselves in an unexpectedly favorable position: they can adopt mature tools without bearing the R&D costs that burden large players.
In this article, we at SHM Studio Let's analyze Chien's thesis, read it through the available data, and translate the implications into operational actions for Italian B2B and retail companies that want to position themselves correctly in the next competitive cycle.
The thesis that overturns the dominant narrative on AI
For months, the public debate on artificial intelligence has revolved around a precise axis: whoever builds the best models will win the market. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind — the narrative favors those who produce technology. However, Chi-Hua Chien offers a radically different perspective.
Chien is a venture capitalist with over twenty years of experience. He recognized Facebook's potential before it became a global phenomenon. Today, in a interview published on TechCrunch, argues that the true winners of the AI era will not sell artificial intelligence. They will use it to create value within their respective verticals.
This distinction is not semantic. It's strategic. Therefore, it deserves careful analysis—especially for Italian SMEs that need to decide where to allocate resources in the next 18-24 months.
The numbers that resize the hype about AI vendors
The AI model market is concentrated in a few hands. According to estimates from Gartner, the competition between foundation models is rapidly turning into a commodity war. Margins are shrinking. Training costs remain astronomical.
Indeed, the paradox is already visible: companies that sell AI as their primary product struggle to monetize sustainably. Conversely, companies like Klarna or Duolingo—which use AI to optimize internal processes—have recorded measurable efficiency gains that can be communicated to investors.
Furthermore, an analysis of Harvard Business Review Confirm that the value of AI is concentrated in vertical applications, not in generic models. This data is central to understanding where competitive advantage will shift in the coming years.
Strategic Reading: The Second-Mover Advantage
Chien's thesis has an often-underestimated consequence. Companies that haven't invested in AI R&D over the last three years are not behind. They are in a position of selective advantage.
They can access mature, tested tools with decreasing adoption costs. Consequently, the opportunity cost of waiting has drastically reduced. What required a team of data scientists in 2023 can now be configured in a few weeks with no-code or low-code tools.
Therefore, the right question is not
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