Nobody Ever Got Fired for Buying IBM. What About AI?
My dad was an IBM blue suiter. I never worked for IBM, but growing up around that culture probably had a lot to do with why I built a career around computers.
I’ve written before about IBM’s THINK motto. Another saying from that era has stayed with me even longer: “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.”
It wasn’t an IBM slogan. It was something buyers said to each other, shorthand for choosing the safe, established option. If you were buying technology for a business, IBM was the standard against which everything else was measured. Later, “IBM compatible” became a standard of its own. You wanted to know that the computer you bought would run the software your business depended on.
I spent many years as an IBM, DOS and Windows guy. I recommended that path to clients because compatibility mattered. A clever product was little use if it couldn’t work with the rest of the office.
The standard moved
IBM didn’t disappear when its name stopped appearing on most people’s desks. It returned its focus to the large organizations and systems that had long been its strength.
Meanwhile, the personal computer changed. Apple helped show businesses what a computer could do with the Apple II and VisiCalc. The Macintosh made a graphical interface and mouse feel like the future. Windows eventually brought a similar way of working to the enormous world of IBM-compatible PCs.
Today, I work mostly in Apple’s ecosystem. Many of my clients work in Microsoft’s. We can still collaborate without much thought about which processor or operating system is underneath. A browser, an internet connection and cloud software have made many of those old boundaries less important.
That brings me to AI. If I had to complete the sentence “Nobody ever got fired for buying ______,” which AI product would go in the blank?
I wouldn’t rush to fill it in. In AI, the safe bet isn’t a brand yet. It’s staying free to change your mind.
The best AI tool keeps changing
I use several mainstream AI products. Some are paid; others I use on free tiers. Which ones get my credit card changes as I learn what they do well.
I’m interested in the result and the experience of getting there. If another tool helps me do better work tomorrow, I want to be able to try it. I don’t want a year’s worth of useful work trapped inside the product I happened to choose first.
That doesn’t mean compatibility has stopped mattering. It means we need to ask what, exactly, must remain compatible.
When I meet a new client, one of my first questions is: Are you a Microsoft 365 business or a Google Workspace business? Most small businesses can answer immediately. Their email, calendars, documents and day-to-day habits already live in one of those ecosystems. That answer shapes which AI tools will be practical for them.
The AI model may change. The company’s information and working habits are harder to move.
The real question is who controls your work
After more than three decades in technology, I’m wary of any software company that treats a customer’s data as a hostage. A provider may gain a short-term advantage by making it painful to leave. That’s no way to earn long-term loyalty.
I believe in open standards and the freedom to move. I also believe companies deserve to be paid for making powerful technology easier to use. I’m happy to pay for that value. I just want the choice to stay mine.
For a small business considering an AI tool, I’d ask:
- Can we export the information and work we put into it?
- Will it fit the email, documents and other systems we already use?
- If a better AI tool comes along next year, can we switch without rebuilding everything?
- Are people finding it useful, or did we buy it because it seemed like the safest name?
Those questions matter more than picking the company currently getting the most headlines.
“Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM” made sense when choosing the wrong computer could strand your software. Today, the safest choice is less likely to be a single brand. It’s a setup that works for your people, respects your data and leaves you free to choose again when something better comes along.