China is winning on price in AI, which is bad news for expensive US model makers and good news for cost-conscious businesses.

• The US still has the smartest AI models, but China's open models do the same work far cheaper.
• On an identical coding task, a top American model cost 7.5 times more than a Chinese model for the same result in the same time.
• Most companies don't need the smartest AI — they use it for boring work like answering customer service emails.
• If "good enough and cheap" wins that 90% of business use, China's models could grab the bulk of real-world demand.

Outlook: Expect price to matter more than raw intelligence, pushing businesses toward cheaper Chinese models for everyday tasks.