The history of technologies rarely follows a linear progression. It advances by waves, each carried by infrastructure, uses, and specific market dynamics. The current transition to artificial intelligence, and more precisely towards generative AI, nevertheless seems to detach from the rhythm observed during previous cycles, from the cloud to mobility.
Several signals converge with the massive adoption of chatgpt, immediate integration into work tools, sustained media attention and rapid proliferation of professional use cases.
But this speed is not just a technological promise. It is explained by the very nature of the current digital infrastructureby contemporary distribution logics, and by the maturity acquired by users.
A distribution infrastructure already in place
During the emergence of the cloud, the first generation players (Salesforce, AWS) had to build both their product and their market. At the time, less than 300 million people were connected to the Internet. The distribution channels were still fragmented, and long sales cycles.
In comparison, the generative AI benefited from the start from an almost immediate access to a global market. On November 30, 2022, Openai launches Chatgpt. In a few days, the tool exceeds one million users. Less than a year later, it is among the quickest growth applications in digital history.
This acceleration is explained by a paradigm shift, Distribution is no longer an obstacle. The platforms (Reddit, X, Youtube, Tiktok, GitHub) allow an instant propagation of products, tutorials and feedback. Learning is done collectively, in real time.
Users ready to experiment without support
Another breaking element: users whether they are professional or general public, are now acculturated to the logic of beta tools, evolving products, and experimental features.
In the 2000s, software required training, a manual, or even a company establishment. Today, a prompt well formulated on a conversational interface is enough to reveal a use value.
This new user posture, autonomous, explorer, and sometimes co-conceptor, has considerably reduced the cycle between discovery, test and integration into a workflow.
Almost zero test costs, a minimum integration friction
Unlike hardware or even conventional software technologies, The generative AI lends itself to a use without initial barrier. It does not require a complex installation, has no prohibitive cost at the entrance, no immediate dependence on a specific environment.
This diffusion model, often via API, plugins or integrated assistants, promotes a spontaneous adoption, fragmented, but fast. The user can test, disengage, then come back without a major transition cost.
This dynamic, however, generates a side effect: a large part of the initial uses is based on curiosity more than on a structured need. The conversion in recurring use remains, in many cases, uncertain.
Unprecedented attention dynamic
Finally, the speed of propagation of the AI is carried by a Unpublished attention infrastructure. It is not only the distribution channels that have evolved, but also the way in which ideas circulate.
Examples of use cases, prompt, hacks productivity or model comparisons are disseminated in very targeted communities in a few hours. This network dynamic, between peers, without intermediary, produces an acceleration effect that is fueled.
The products improve according to the use, but also of the collective analysis of their potential, in a short cycle between experimentation, documentation and sharing.
The adoption of AI is not based solely on its technical performance
Generative artificial intelligence is not essential because it would be radically more effective than previous technological waves. She wins because the environment in which it appears is radically more favorable, Global connectivity, user maturity, disintermediated distribution, rapid test culture.
However, this does not guarantee lasting adoption. The conversion of exploratory uses into structuring uses remains a central issue. But for the first time, Technology does not come up against infrastructure, pedagogy or distribution channel. It is there, no doubt, that the breakdown resides.
