Generative AI needs more ways to part people from their money. While adoption is strong, it's overwhelmingly for the free versions of these models. Over 400 million people use ChatGPT every week, for instance, but only about 15 million of them are paying subscribers.

Most social media platforms would love to have such a ratio (for example, Twitter/X's subscribers make up less than 1% of its user base). But generating AI content is expensive and does not scale the same way as social media platforms to create savings through volume.