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Deep Research · OpenAI · ChatGPTEpisode extra13 · 31 December 2025 · 01:03:10

2025 Was the Year of AI Users, Not Companies: Models Entered Life Faster Than Business Processes

What to watch for

1Compare “Deep Research: a revolution almost no one uses” with “Deep Research: problem of waiting for the response”: they provide different criteria for judging the same issue.
2Test the conclusion from “Automation and introduction of AI in large companies” in your own use case—what actually changes in the process and what remains a promise.
3Before choosing a product or approach, record the constraint identified in “Death of benchmarks: what happens next is part 1/3”.
4Define the owner of the outcome and the quality metric for the situation described in “Gemini, GPT and user migration”.
Signals to track afterwards
→Watch for actions by Coursera and Udemy that confirm or challenge the episode’s central claims.
→Compare new launches and policy changes with “Automation and introduction of AI in large companies”: have access, quality, price, or constraints changed?
→Check whether the scenario in “Gemini, GPT and user migration” becomes repeatable practice rather than a one-off demonstration.
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Key takeaways

00:00The boundary between value and constraint: today on ToTheMoon

The practical meaning of “2025 Was the Year of AI Users, Not Companies: Models Entered Life Faster Than Business Processes” is that ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude entered the daily lives of hundreds of millions of people, while corporate deployments stall, so 2025 became the year of consumers rather than a full rebuild of business.

04:33The main result of 2025 is that AI stopped being a tool for a small technology audience

The practical meaning of “Deep Research: a revolution almost no one uses” is that users no longer ask whether a model exists — they expect it to find a place, compare options, write code, or help review a document, and Deep Research answers exactly that demand, even if few have gotten used to it yet.

06:41What changes in real work: examples for which Deep Research is used

The working conclusion from “Examples for which Deep Research is used” is that Deep Research is worth it when a person is willing to wait for a deep report, but a simple question needs a fast answer; the value is in matching the mode to the task rather than running deep research on every query.

08:14Deep Research became one of the most visible shifts, but even it reveals a limit

For the “Deep Research: problem of waiting for the response” scene, the decisive point is this: sometimes a person is willing to wait ten minutes for a deep report; sometimes they need a simple answer in seconds. A good product should understand the difference rather than force the user to choose an internal architecture.

14:14How the issue moves from news to product: why enterprise is almost not implementing AI

In the context of “Why enterprise is almost not implementing AI,” this criterion applies: enterprise adoption is tied to data, security, responsibility, and legacy software, so a personal subscription starts in a minute while corporate automation spends months in approval and may still deliver no result.

17:03The practical meaning: a breakthrough in visuals and image generation

The “A breakthrough in visuals and image generation” scene leads to a working conclusion: the visible leap in image generation is impressive in a demo, but the value appears where the result works reliably inside a real process, not only in a striking example.

20:07Companies adopt AI much more slowly

The discussion of “Automation and introduction of AI in large companies” yields a practical test: companies adopt AI much more slowly than individuals, because the process runs into data, security, responsibility, and legacy software; so automation can spend months in approval and still deliver no effect.

22:30What determines the outcome: how the scale of money in AI changed

The “How the AI money changed: hundreds of billions became normal” scene leads to a working conclusion: sums in the hundreds of billions have become routine, but large investment alone does not guarantee a product will work in a real process; money speeds up the race, while the test remains user retention and results.

37:15The clearest progress occurred in programming

The “Death of benchmarks: what happens next is part 1/3” topic becomes clearer once this point is included: the clearest progress has come in programming — models write large chunks of code — but an impressive benchmark does not show behavior in a real system, where a long chain of actions accumulates errors.

57:33That is why familiar rankings are dying

The “Gemini, GPT and user migration” issue should be assessed with one constraint in mind: familiar rankings are losing meaning, because a company can post a cosmic result and at the same time ship a feature that cannot handle a simple task; in 2026 what matters is not a place in the table but user retention and the ability to carry a process through to the end.

What this episode is about

Deep Research, programming, new models, and hundreds of millions of users made AI mainstream. Enterprise deployments still stall, agents and driver-assistance systems remain unstable, and benchmarks lose meaning. In 2026, the winners will not be the loudest models, but products that can operate inside a real process.

The main result of 2025 is that AI stopped being a tool for a small technology audience. ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude entered the daily lives of hundreds of millions of people. Users no longer ask whether a model exists. They expect it to find a place, compare options, write code, or help review a document.

Deep Research became one of the most visible shifts, but even it reveals a limit. Sometimes a person is willing to wait ten minutes for a deep report; sometimes they need a simple answer in seconds. A good product should understand the difference rather than force the user to choose an internal architecture.

Companies adopt AI much more slowly. An enterprise process involves data, security, responsibility, and old software. A personal subscription starts in a minute; enterprise automation may spend months in approval and still produce no result. That is why 2025 was the year of consumers rather than a complete reconstruction of business.

The clearest progress occurred in programming. Models already write large portions of code and help assemble products. Agents and driver-assistance systems remain unstable, however: long action chains accumulate errors, while an impressive benchmark does not show what happens in a real system.

That is why familiar rankings are dying. A company can show an extraordinary result while releasing a feature that cannot understand a simple task.

In 2026, what matters more than a model’s place in a table will be user retention, work with context, and the ability to carry a process through to completion. Grok, OpenAI, and Google will compete not only through intelligence, but through the place where a person spends every day.

In 2026, what matters more than a model’s place in a table will be user retention, work with context, and the ability to carry a process through to completion. As a result, grok, OpenAI, and Google will compete not only through intelligence, but through the place where a person spends every day.

Episode transcript

The episode is in Russian; below is an English reading guide to the transcript (the full EN transcript is a machine translation). Voice matching applied to 139 segments: 73 identified, 8 mixed, 44 probable, and 14 unresolved.

Read transcript on a separate page

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