AI distributor subsidies obscure demand

AI providers are increasingly structuring deals that pay or subsidize distributors, consultants, or corporate customers to adopt their models. Those payments can make revenue growth look like genuine demand when it is partly engineered by subsidies, and they can lock organizations into a vendor before real product‑market fit is proven. — This matters because subsidy‑driven adoption changes how investors, regulators, and customers should interpret growth, competition, and antitrust risk in the AI industry.