Sunday Aug 2
STRATEGYAnthropic

Mollick Says Pick Claude Or ChatGPT

2AUG
TWO SURVIVORSCLAUDECHATGPT

There are only two AI options worth your money right now. Ethan Mollick, a Wharton professor, says just pick Claude or ChatGPT and pay for it. Simon Willison published a similar guide the same week.

Two influential AI writers landed on the same shortlist within days of each other. Neither recommended shopping around forever. It reads more like consensus than coincidence.

The advice: treat the agent like a junior hire, not a search engine. Give it a real task, review the output, and ask for changes rather than accepting the first draft.

Free tiers still work for small, low-stakes questions. For anything that actually matters, both writers say the paid tier earns its cost.

full brief & sources

⚡ Why this matters

  • Two of the most-read AI voices for product people converged on the same advice within days of each other.
  • Signals the market has consolidated: agentic work realistically means picking Claude or ChatGPT, not shopping every new model.
  • Practical, not theoretical: both writers frame it as what to do this week, not a forecast.

🔍 What happened

  • Ethan Mollick, a Wharton professor and author of One Useful Thing, published an AI agent guide in late July.
  • His core advice: pick Claude or ChatGPT, pay for the premium tier, and give it a real task.
  • Mollick says free tools are fine for low-stakes use but not for serious agentic work.
  • Simon Willison, a developer known for tracking AI tools closely, published his own opinionated guide days earlier.
  • Both writers treat the agent like a collaborator you give feedback to, not a tool you accept blindly.
  • Neither guide recommends a third option beyond Claude and ChatGPT for serious agentic tasks.

💬 Smart takes

  • Ethan Mollick: says to pick Claude or ChatGPT, pay the $20, and give an agent a real task from your real life.
  • Simon Willison: published his own opinionated guide to which AI to use for different jobs, days before Mollick's.
  • Skeptic: both writers already use these tools daily, so calling this a neutral guide undersells how much their own habits shape the conclusion.

🧭 Where this goes

  1. Likelythis two-horse framing holds through the rest of 2026 for agentic work specifically.
  2. Possiblea third lab's agent product earns a mention in the next round of these guides.
  3. Possibleenterprise buyers start citing this kind of guide in vendor selection conversations.
  4. Wild Carda cheaper open-source agent stack becomes good enough to break the duopoly framing within a year.

🥄 The Spoon Take

Two people who watch AI for a living landed on the same two names, days apart. That's the real signal. For agentic work, the market has already narrowed to Claude and ChatGPT. Everything else is still catching up, no matter how the leaderboards read.

🤔 Pushback

Mollick and Willison both use Claude and ChatGPT constantly, so their shortlist reflects habit as much as an objective test.

·Simon Willison - AI picking guide·Forbes - Mollick's agent guide·One Useful Thing - Mollick's newsletter