I Collaborate With A Lot of AI Companies
Just to be really clear. As part of a ton of Creative Partner Programs (CPP), I’ve had incredible opportunities to meet and support companies that are truly building great things.
The last 3 years has shown how AI platforms can be cost-effective and powerful ways to use the latest tools over individual subscriptions to tools.
I encourage people to subscribe to a tool like Magnific or Adobe Firefly rather than paying individual subscriptions to very specific tools.
However, there is an emerging issue:
Many platforms have become just extended API wrappers around tools.
Trends come in and out, and once one starts many seem to follow. Just recently we have the uprising of MCPs, Plugins and connections to Codex and Claude Code.
Instead of opening the platforms directly, we can now access many of these platforms directly on the two most known AI tools from Anthropic and Open AI.
However, there is a couple serious catches here:
Subscription - You need to pay a subscription fee TWICE, one for Claude/Codex and another for the specific AI Platform.
API Costs - Some platforms require you to pay for the specific API cost of the platform as well (Claude Subscription + API Credits + AI Platform Credits).
The key benefit is the alleged accessibility that comes with integration of these platforms all in one place.
Honestly, I have experienced it myself, and it is great. But just not sustainable.
As a key example, here is a spinning top battle game I made entirely on Claude Code and it used the Magnific MCP to generate images, 3D models to complete the game.
It cost precious Fable 5 and Opus 4.8 tokens as well as my Magnific tokens, but the results are clear for me (and I have zero game development experience):
This Is An Issue For General Consumers
Whether you are an enthusiast, an expert or just someone casually browsing, the result of this is higher cost for accessibility, and not for innovation.
Many AI Platforms have launched powerful Enterprise plans in the past couple of years as their focuses switched from B2C to B2B. Some companies manage this balance well, but some are struggling to keep everyone happy.
Businesses have a lot of money. General consumers have much less.
The companies that will win as the ones that can keep their core user-base satisfied and involved.
Creative-AI tools can bring storytelling and creativity to everyone, but if the costs are sky-high then it won’t have the effect it could have.
What Do We Do?
I encourage everyone to invest their time and money into AI platforms that focus on grounded updates for the general population.
It’s not just about updates or the latest tools, but the companies that:
Engage - the ones that take time to speak to you. Whether on social media, or through their employees, these are the companies that want to hear from you.
Give Opportunities - give you the chance to try their tools before major subscription tie-ins.
Innovate - are building new solutions to help tell stories. Attaching a bunch of AI tools to your platform is great, but the best companies are the ones that help you use and access them in a way that works for you.
More importantly, we need to support the companies that actively support people and deliver with it.