AI capabilities are becoming the primary differentiator in cloud platform selection, eclipsing traditional metrics like cost and reliability.

Risks include potential vendor lock-in and the importance of ensuring the provider’s AI roadmap aligns with the organization's long-term objectives.

Snowflake’s OpenAI collaboration shows frontier AI models integrated directly into data platforms, blending data infrastructure with AI tooling.

Decision-making is increasingly cross-functional, extending beyond IT procurement to reflect AI maturity and organizational alignment.

The industry is shifting from pure cloud infrastructure to AI platforms with agentic capabilities, such as NLP and computer vision, embedded to speed production deployment.

ByteDance’s Volcano Engine illustrates cloud differentiation through AI tools and real-time analytics, enabling customers to build AI-powered services.

The overarching takeaway is to treat cloud platforms as strategic tools for long-term AI-driven goals, not just interchangeable infrastructure.

Generative AI-focused cloud services were the fastest-growing segment in 2025, signaling a shift in enterprise buying toward AI-enabled offerings.

Enterprises should evaluate cloud providers on AI strategy, governance, model selection, and deployment of AI workflows, not solely on infrastructure metrics.