AI coding has hit an 'intelligence saturation' point, Cognition cofounder says
Cognition's cofounder says many AI coding tasks are now "intelligence saturated," making cost and speed more important than a smarter model.
Russell Kaplan, co-founder of AI coding startup Cognition, claims the AI model competition is now prioritizing speed over intelligence. The company's founder asserts that AI model baselines have improved, making smarter, more capable models less appealing to users. Instead, the focus could shift towards speed and pricing. Kaplan notes that many software engineering tasks have reached an "intelligence saturation point," meaning once a model can perform a task effectively, the only differentiators are cost and speed.
This shift aligns with internal data from Cognition, indicating that a 10-point intelligence advantage in AI models now translates to only a 20% increase in developer traffic, down significantly from nearly 69% in late 2025. This potential shift in strategy could significantly impact the competition among AI companies vying for software developers and enterprise contracts, as users may favor cheaper and faster models over those that are merely slightly more intelligent.
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