It's a fair reading to suggest that the operational friction from custom prompt engineering and integrated workflows makes firms less likely to jump ship, thus supporting premium pricing for incumbent AI providers.
However, the idea that this directly leads to universally low switching costs in new API deployments overlooks a crucial conditional aspect.
The ability to quickly redirect API calls and reallocate demand truly hinges on the degree of customisation and integration, not just the API itself.
If an application has deeply embedded a specific AI model's unique features, like a creative writing AI fine-tuned on a particular narrative style, switching providers means substantial re-engineering of the application's core logic.
This kind of deep integration, for example, would make a 'quick redirect' far from simple, impacting the user experience and requiring significant developer effort.