In one week, Microsoft shipped its most important AI product using competitors' models side by side, the Pentagon signed deals with seven AI providers instead of picking a winner, and xAI slashed prices by 40% to stay in the game. The lock-in playbook that defined the first AI era (one model, one provider, one platform) is dead. For anyone building on AI, the message is unambiguous: design for model portability, because your customers already expect it.