What happened
MIT Sloan Management Review published a strategic framework arguing that generative AI has not yet become a true 'general-purpose technology' because its surrounding technological, industrial, and institutional architecture remains unsettled — a state the author terms being only partly 'platformed.' Drawing an extended historical analogy to electrification (proven commercially by 1882, yet not widely adopted for four more decades until technological, industrial, and regulatory architecture stabilized), author Kevin J. Boudreau argues companies risk 'building on unstable ground' until this platforming process completes. The piece prescribes four executive strategies: learn faster than you commit, build assets that survive architectural change, invest in complements rather than raw AI capability, and develop organizational capabilities no shared model can replace.
Why it matters
Gives executives a structured lens — distinct from typical adoption-rate surveys — for deciding which AI investments are durable versus premature, directly informing capital allocation and platform-risk conversations at the board level.
Action needed
Use the platforming framework to stress-test current AI capital-investment commitments against architectural stability risk.