[[Tony Seale]] argues that the [[Bottleneck|bottleneck]] in enterprise AI was never the model and always the context - and that connecting context is not enough, because a context layer that cannot [[Interoperability|interoperate]] turns from acceleration into a wall. > The [[Bottleneck|bottleneck]] in enterprise AI has moved. It was never the [[AI Model|model]]. It was always context. ^bottleneck-is-context The opening move: - The bottleneck has moved off the [[AI Model|model]] and onto context - every serious AI conversation now turns toward [[Microsoft semantic knowledge layer|semantic layers]], [[Ontology|ontologies]], and enterprise memory. - A harder question hides inside that turn: when organisations connect their context, can they still own it, move it, and [[Interoperability|interoperate]] with it. ## Phase 1 - the Web folded into the model > Phase 1 of the AI revolution was the [[World Wide Web|Web]] [[Folding context|folded]] into the [[AI Model|model]]. For thirty years we poured [[Language|language]], code, [[Knowledge|knowledge]] and [[Culture|culture]] into an open, crawlable, addressable Web - and the [[AI Model|models]] compressed it into weights. ^phase-1 ## Phase 2 - the enterprise folding into context > Phase 2 is the one we are living through now: the enterprise [[Folding context|folding]] itself into context. Giving things stable [[Identifier|identities]], making relationships first-class, formalising the [[Semantics|meaning]] the business actually runs on. ^phase-2 - The mechanism: building [[Semantic knowledge graph|an ontology over a knowledge graph]]. ## Phase 3 - context unfolding into the Agentic Web > Phase 3 is where this is heading: context [[Folding context|unfolding]] back out into the [[Agentic Web]] - where [[AI agent|agents]] move between customer and supplier, bank and regulator, buyer and seller, and only travel where [[Semantics|meaning]] is open enough to follow. ^phase-3 This is the step Tony gives the most weight, and where the argument's stakes live - the mirror of Phase 1's folding-in. He rules out three counterfeits: > Not a thousand disconnected copilots. Not a tabular [[Data warehouse|warehouse]] with some [[Semantics|semantics]] sprinkled on top. Not one vendor's proprietary 'Context Graph'. ^phase-3-counterfeits ## The consequence - own your meaning or rent it > The organisations that win Phase 3 will not simply be the ones with tidy internal data. They will be the ones whose meaning can cross the border - into a market, a partner, a regulator - without asking a vendor's permission first. The ones whose context cannot follow will watch deals close on the other side of a wall they paid to build. ^the-wall - The losers build a [[Bottleneck|bottleneck]] of their own making. - The remedy: test for [[Interoperability|interoperability]] before handing over context, with three questions: > But before you hand over your context, ask three questions: Can your ontology leave the platform? Can another system resolve your [[Identifier|identifiers]]? Can your [[Knowledge graph|graph]] join the global graph? If the answer to any of them is no, you do not [[True ownership|own]] your meaning. You are renting it. ^three-questions His amendment to a decade of "connect your context": > My message for the last ten years has been: connect your context. I'm adding an amendment to that: make your context [[Interoperability|interoperable]]. ^amendment