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

Enterprise executives believed they could switch AI vendors in weeks, but a Zapier survey reveals 58% of migrations fail or require far more effort than expected. Meanwhile, AI vendors are raising prices sharply: OpenAI increased GPT-5.2 token costs from $1.25 to $5.75, and Anthropic moved to dynamic pricing, potentially doubling or tripling costs for heavy users. Technical dependencies, including proprietary APIs, training data, and workflow integrations, make switching nearly impossible, and even on-premises models like Meta Llama are vulnerable to vendor abandonment. The era of cheap, flexible AI is ending, and enterprises must prepare for rising, structural costs.