AI Wrapper

An "AI wrapper" is the dismissive term for AI products that primarily call foundation model APIs and add minimal value beyond a UI on top. The critique: such products have no defensible moat because anyone can call the same OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google APIs. The label is applied (sometimes fairly, sometimes lazily) to a large fraction of post-ChatGPT AI startups. Whether the criticism is fair depends entirely on what the company has built beyond the API call.

The fair version of the critique:

A pure AI wrapper:

• Only feature: prompt + foundation model response.
• No proprietary data: doesn't accumulate data that improves the product.
• No workflow integration: standalone tool, not embedded in customer workflow.
• No distribution moat: ...