Locked, stocked, and losing budget: AI vendor lock-in bites back

The Register · 2 months ago

Enterprise organizations face mounting vendor lock-in as they discover switching between AI providers requires far more effort than anticipated, with 58 percent of migration attempts failing or requiring significantly more effort than expected. OpenAI raised GPT-5.2 pricing from $1.25 to $5.75 per input token, while Anthropic shifted Claude enterprise from fixed to usage-based pricing potentially doubling costs, and GitHub Copilot restricted compute availability and discontinued Opus model access. Companies increasingly dependent on specific vendor platforms, APIs, and integrated workflows will face sustained price increases as AI providers transition toward token-based pricing models reflecting real infrastructure costs.