---
id: "quote-ai-commodity-fallacy"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["¶3"]
tags: ["thesis", "misconceptions"]
related: ["concept-ai-commodity-fallacy", "concept-local-ai-value"]
speaker: "Baba Prasad"
speakers: ["Baba Prasad"]
quote: "These findings are routinely interpreted as evidence that AI investment is failing. I believe they are evidence of something different: we are treating AI as a commodity. But AI's most valuable effects are not commodity-like at all. They are inherently local; embedded in specific companies' workflows, shaped by proprietary data, and inseparable from institutional context."
sources: ["spine"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-spine"
originDay: 1
articleStem: "hbr-edu-47-5-types-ai-investment"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/the-5-types-of-ai-investment-and-how-to-capture-their-value"
sourceTitle: "The 5 Types of AI Investment–and How to Capture Their Value"
---
# AI is not a commodity

> These findings are routinely interpreted as evidence that AI investment is failing. I believe they are evidence of something different: we are treating AI as a commodity. But AI's most valuable effects are not commodity-like at all. They are inherently local; embedded in specific companies' workflows, shaped by proprietary data, and inseparable from institutional context.

— [[entity-baba-prasad|Baba Prasad]]

The thesis statement of the article. It names the diagnosis ([[concept-ai-commodity-fallacy]]) and the cure ([[concept-local-ai-value]]) in a single move, and is the quote to lead with when summarizing the source.