The not-so-free anymore web

Remember the good ol’ days when the internet felt like a vast, open playground? Yeah, neither do we. These days, it’s more like a theme park where every ride costs a token—except the tokens are your data, your patience, and, of course, your cold hard cash.

AI has revolutionised the digital business model, turning every click, scroll, and sigh into a monetizable event. Want a chatbot to answer your question? That’ll be R99.99/month. Need an AI to write your emails? Say hello to another subscription. At this rate, breathing the same digital air as an AI might soon require a microtransaction.

So, let’s dive into how AI turned the internet into a pay-per-view circus and whether we’re all just clowns in this monetised madness.

The AI digital business model - or, how to sell air

A digital business model is essentially the art of selling things that don’t physically exist—like software, data, and the illusion of convenience. Thanks to AI, companies have mastered the Jedi mind trick of convincing us that we need to pay for things that used to be free.

Take Netflix and Spotify, for example. They use AI to recommend content so personalised, it feels like your creepy but oddly accurate best friend. And what do they get in return? Your eternal subscription loyalty (or at least until the next price hike).

The digital economy thrives on one simple rule: If it moves, monetise it. If it doesn’t, slap AI on it and monetise it anyway.

Why AI costs more than your soul (just barely)

Spitting facts:

• Training a single AI model can cost up to $1 billion (AI Now Institute).
• The average cost of implementing AI in a business? A cool $6.2 million (Cornerstone).
• You aren't going to do this at home no matter waht Youtube tells you

Content:

AI is like that high-maintenance friend who only eats organic, artisanal, gluten-free, free-range, ethically sourced… air. It’s expensive, demanding, and never satisfied.

Why? Because AI needs:

• Data (your privacy is collateral damage).
• Computing power (enough to power a small country).
• Constant updates (because yesterday’s AI is already obsolete).

Small businesses look at AI costs and weep softly into their spreadsheets. Meanwhile, big corporations just shrug and add another zero to the budget. The real question is: Is AI sustainable, or are we all just funding Skynet’s startup phase?

AI - the ultimate digital snake oil salesman

Despite the costs, AI is the ultimate money-printing machine for businesses (for now). How? By convincing us that we can’t live without:

• AI chatbots that answer questions almost correctly.
• Recommendation engines that suggest products you definitely don’t need.
• Automated customer service that leaves you screaming into the void.

E-commerce sites using AI see 30% higher customer spending (Salesforce), proving that AI’s real superpower is making us impulse-buy things we’ll return in a week.

Guide to surviving the AI paywall apocalypse

If you’re a business trying to navigate this AI gold rush without going bankrupt, here’s how to not get trampled by the hype train:

Pick your battles – Don’t AI-ify everything. Start with one thing, like customer service (but maybe keep a human on standby).

Use cloud-based AI – Because nobody can afford their own server farm.

Be transparent – Tell customers why AI is charging them R5.00 per deep thought.

Pay per breath?

AI has turned the digital business model into a high-stakes game of "pay to play." But as costs rise and wallets shrink, we have to ask: Is this sustainable, or are we heading toward a dystopia where even our thoughts require a subscription?

What do you think? Will AI make life easier, or just more expensive? My responses require a small fee. DM to find out how much

Final Thought: If AI keeps evolving, soon we’ll need a token just to read this article. Better enjoy it while it’s (sort of) free.