Feels like the same consolidation cycle we saw with mobile apps and browsers are playing out here. The winners aren’t necessarily those with the best models, but those who already control the surface where people live their digital lives.

Google injects AI Overviews directly into search, X pushes Grok into the feed, Apple wraps "intelligence" into Maps and on-device workflows, and Microsoft is quietly doing the same with Copilot across Windows and Office.

Open models and startups can innovate, but the platforms can immediately put their AI in front of billions of users without asking anyone to change behavior (not even typing a new URL).

AI overviews has arguable done more harm than good for them, because people assume it's Gemini, but really it's some ultra light weight model made for handling millions of queries a minute, and has no shortage of stupid mistakes/hallucinations.

> Google injects AI Overviews directly into search, X pushes Grok into the feed, Apple wraps "intelligence" into Maps and on-device workflows, and Microsoft is quietly doing the same with Copilot across Windows and Office.

One of them isnt the same as others (hint: It is Apple). The only thing Apple is doing with Maps is, is adding ads https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/26/apple-moving-ahead-with...

Microsoft hasn't been very quiet about it, at least in my experience. Every time I boot up Windows I get some kind of blurb about an AI feature.