When Lithuanian startup Sintra.ai announced a $17M seed round earlier this year (Lawrence, 2025), the pitch sounded familiar: “AI helpers” for small businesses – one for customer support, one for growth, one for analytics. Slick demos, bundled workflows, and a subscription model. But under the hood? They all run on OpenAI’s models.
This isn’t unique to Sintra. Dozens of “AI agent” startups are popping up with verticalized offerings, but most are essentially wrapping prompts, UX, and integrations around the same core LLM. It’s a clever way to package generic intelligence into workflows that SMBs actually understand and pay for. In a way, this is bundling: not trying to outsmart ChatGPT, but packaging it like Microsoft once did with Office.
The problem is sustainability. History shows what happens when platforms see their complementors thriving. Apple copied successful iPhone apps. Amazon launched its own versions of top-selling marketplace products. Jasper, once the darling of AI marketing copy (Thakur, 2025), was quickly sidelined once ChatGPT added similar tools. What stops OpenAI from doing the same with “SMB helpers” inside ChatGPT? The platform owner always has the guillotine.
That doesn’t mean Sintra and its peers are doomed. Their defensibility might come not from prompts, but from data flywheels – proprietary customer data, feedback loops, and integrations that OpenAI can’t easily replicate. Perplexity AI is thriving not because its model is better, but because it owns the search experience and retrieval layer.
In my view, most LLM based AI agent startups are temporary wrappers. The real moat will come from owning unique data or creating a sticky ecosystem around workflows. Until then, they’re renting intelligence from OpenAI – valuable for now, but precarious in the long run.
Do you think AI agent startups can build a lasting moat, or will they all eventually be swallowed by the platforms they depend on?
References
Lawrence, C. (2025, June 10). Lithuanian AI startup Sintra secures $17M Seed: empowering SMEs with AI helpers. Tech.eu. https://tech.eu/2025/06/10/lithuanian-ai-startup-sintra-secures-17m-seed-empowering-smbs-with-ai-helpers/
Thakur, T. (2025, August 15). Jasper AI Statistics 2025: Growth & Usage Revealed • SQ Magazine. SQ Magazine. https://sqmagazine.co.uk/jasper-ai-statistics/
