Your AI strategy is stuck. Not because you lack vision or budget or executive buy-in, it's because your team is having the same infrastructure conversation for the sixth consecutive month.
We’ve all read the MIT study, right?! The latest doom & gloom stat about AI is that 95% of enterprise AI projects never make it to production. Not because the technology doesn't work or because the models aren't good enough. They fail because teams waste time debating build versus buy, comparing cloud providers, and architecting systems that will be obsolete before they launch.
In our experience, the infrastructure problem is solved. Vercel just proved it with AI SDK 5.0, their AI Gateway, and a platform that makes model switching as simple as changing a config file. Yet so many companies are still treating AI deployment like it's 2019, cobbling together custom solutions for problems that no longer exist.
The Real Problem Was Never the Tools
We've watched dozens of engineering teams tackle AI projects. The pattern is always the same.
Month one: excitement and prototypes
Month three: infrastructure paralysis.
Month six: a beautiful architecture diagram and zero customers using AI features
The building blocks are already in place. Real-time responses, consistent interfaces across AI models, infrastructure that grows with demand. Vercel has assembled these pieces into a cohesive platform. Teams can move between GPT-5, Claude, or Llama based on their needs—all in minutes rather than months. They can connect AI capabilities to existing tools without reinventing the wheel. And they can focus on outcomes instead of worrying about security or capacity planning.
But having the tools and knowing how to use them are different problems entirely.
Imagine you're building a house and someone hands you the world's best hammer. Fantastic. Now what? Where do you start? How do you frame the structure? What about electrical? Plumbing? The hammer is essential, but it's 5% of what you need to actually build something people can live in.
That's where enterprises are stuck with AI right now. They have powerful tools but no blueprint for turning them into production systems that create real value.
Why This Partnership Changes Everything
When Vercel selected Blank Metal as one of their first AI implementation partners, they weren't just adding another name to a partner list. They were recognizing that even the best infrastructure is a core part of the solution, but so is the expertise to build products/features people actually want – and deploy on it.
Instead of enterprise teams spending three months evaluating providers, two months building authentication layers, and another month figuring out observability, you start with a proven stack and a team that's already built what you're trying to build. Week one becomes about your actual business logic, not reinventing streaming responses.
The combination works. Vercel provides the roads. We provide the vehicles and the drivers who know every shortcut. While others are still drawing maps, our clients are already at their destination and planning their next iteration.
Take model switching as a concrete example. Every enterprise wants the flexibility to swap between providers as costs drop or performance improves. Vercel makes this technically trivial through their AI Gateway. But knowing when to switch, how to manage the transition without breaking production, and which models actually deliver ROI for your specific use case? That's where implementation expertise becomes the difference between a feature that exists and a feature that transforms your business.
The Bigger Implications
We share the same vision as Vercel – every piece of software will be rewritten in the next five years. That's not hyperbole. It's the logical conclusion of AI capabilities meeting market demands. The companies that win won't be the ones with the best infrastructure or even the best models. They'll be the ones that ship fastest and iterate based on real usage.
This partnership represents a new model for that reality. Not build versus buy, but ship versus stall. Not vendor lock-in, but strategic flexibility. Not months of setup, but weeks to production.
The enterprises that understand this shift are already moving. They're not having infrastructure debates. They're not building custom solutions for solved problems. They're taking proven patterns, applying them to their specific challenges, and getting AI into customers' hands while their competitors are still comparing cloud providers.
What Actually Happens Next
The infrastructure debate is over because Vercel ended it. They built a platform that handles everything from development to deployment to scaling. Model agnostic. Framework flexible. Enterprise security from day one.
The implementation challenge remains, but it's a different kind of problem. It's about knowing which AI features matter for your business. It's about designing experiences that users trust. It's about measuring real impact, not vanity metrics.
Our partnership with Vercel means enterprises no longer have to choose between moving fast and building right. The platform provides the foundation. We provide the expertise to build something meaningful on top of it. Together, we compress months of work into weeks of progress.
The Choice Is Yours
You can spend the next six months debating infrastructure choices that won't matter in a year. You can build custom solutions for problems Vercel has already solved. You can treat AI like it's just another technology trend to cautiously evaluate.
Or … you can accept that the infrastructure problem is solved, the tools exist, and the only question that matters is how fast you can get AI into production to start learning from real usage.
Companies winning with AI aren't smarter or better funded. They just started shipping while everyone else was still planning. This partnership exists to help more enterprises make that same shift from planning to shipping, from potential to production.
The infrastructure debate is over. The implementation race has begun. Where will you be six months from now?
Learn more about how Blank Metal and Vercel are accelerating enterprise AI deployment at blankmetal.ai.