How Long Can OpenAI’s First-Mover Advantage Last?

As companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta Platforms race to leapfrog each other with marginally faster, cheaper or more accurate large language models, a number of developers have told me that these LLMs are beginning to reach parity when it comes to performance.

And now, new exclusive data from Kruze Consulting, a finance and HR consulting firm, backs up those anecdotes. Over the last year, the proportion of the firm’s 800-plus venture-backed startup customers using multiple AI models has grown significantly, expanding from 1% last summer to 15% in April.

OpenAI remains by far and away the market leader when it comes to LLM usage, and I’ll be the first to admit that 15% is still a relatively modest number. But, this trend could signal that developers aren’t as married these days to any specific model provider as they once were, a belief that industry practitioners have shared with me as well.