Right now, people see artificial intelligence as this big, game-changing technology, something that's going to shake up entire industries. But Sam Altman has a different perspective. He thinks AI is on its way to being as routine as tap water or electricity—something people use every day without even stopping to think about it.
Speaking at the BlackRock US Infrastructure Summit, Altman compared AI’s future to utilities. Instead of paying a flat rate, folks might pay for AI by the unit, just like you do for electricity. “We see a future where intelligence is a utility like electricity or water and people buy it from us on a meter,” he said.
Pay only for what you use
Altman’s idea pushes towards a new pricing model. Forget about monthly subscriptions; soon, companies and individuals could pay based on the amount of computing power their tasks actually need. You just use AI when you want, pay for what you use, and that’s the end of it—no wasted money and no complicated plans. It’ll feel a lot like paying your utility bills.
AI is already changing work culture
AI is not waiting for this future, though. It is already reshaping the workplace. Tons of companies use AI to do jobs that used to take hours of manual effort. Take software development: AI can write or review code in minutes instead of days. It’s popping up in research labs, scientific analysis, and pretty much any task that needs some brainpower.
In lots of places, employees spend less time doing nitty-gritty technical work and more time guiding AI—letting the algorithms crank out results while they steer the ship.
AI will take on bigger projects
Right now, these tools help finish tasks that would eat up a few hours for a human. Altman says soon AI will tackle bigger jobs—projects that currently drag on for days or weeks. That could completely change how businesses think about productivity, deadlines, and project management.
Altman uses AI himself
Altman does not just talk about AI; he uses it daily while working at OpenAI. When he is cooking up new product ideas or planning a strategy, he asks AI for feedback before showing anything to the team. As AI gets access to more company data and documents, Altman expects its advice to become even more crucial for making good decisions.
A massive infrastructure behind it all
Of course, all this tech does not run on thin air. You need giant data centres loaded with specialised hardware and a ton of electricity. To keep up with skyrocketing demand, OpenAI teams up with heavyweights like Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank, pouring money into infrastructure.
Altman calls these places “large campuses” where thousands of people work around the clock, building and maintaining the systems that make modern AI possible.
AI: Just another tool
If Altman’s prediction turns out to be true, the next generations will not see AI as anything new or creative- it will be a necessity and will be used like a utility- just like electricity, television and more.
It will be just another thing we use for writing, solving problems, learning new stuff, and building products. AI will run quietly in the background, always ready to help—and people will pay for it the same way they pay for water and electricity.