My prediction is that as the infrastructure/computational resource floors for AI systems rise and research + development become more centralized as a result, industry especially will trend toward developing applications powered by commercialized technology rather than creating domain specific AI systems from scratch. If hardware limitations restrict fledgling companies from outcompeting established research labs, it seems reasonable that they'd outsource given the option. This pattern is already emerging in the generative field where start-ups are adopting an API-reliant service. OpenAI has published a blog post showcasing a handful of them: https://openai.com/blog/gpt-3-apps/