A week ago, TokTak launched globally with a pitch that sounds like pure sorcery for anyone drowning in content calendars: paste any product URL, get instant social posts in 11 languages, auto-publish across your channels. The Korean startup, which soft-launched in June 2024, generates short-form videos, carousel posts, and blog content from nothing but a link and claims it's already serving online sellers and social commerce marketers across multiple countries.
TokTak just validated something every operator already knows: the "URL-in, content-out" pattern isn't experimental anymore. TikTok built Symphony Creative Studio to turn product pages into TikTok-style clips. Real estate agents are using RealEstateContent.ai ($99/month) to convert MLS listings into week-long social campaigns — the tool claims over 110,000 posts generated across thousands of North American agents. Shopify merchants have an entire ecosystem of apps converting product URLs into ads and videos.
The infrastructure exists. The UX pattern is validated. Horizontal players are getting press and proving the concept to the market.
Which creates a narrow window: build the vertical AI content desk for one specific workflow and evolve into that industry's AI agent of record before the horizontal players figure out they need to go deep.
The numbers: vertical AI is eating horizontal tools for breakfast
TokTak's launch announcement positions it as a horizontal play: "any product link" becomes content for "any seller." Investors love the TAM story. Operators know it lacks defensibility.
The vertical AI market tells a different story. Valued between $5.1 billion and $12.9 billion in 2024 depending on the source, the market is projected to hit $47 billion to $115 billion by 2030-2034, representing a CAGR of 21-24%. McKinsey estimates that over 70% of AI's total value will come from vertical applications. Gartner predicts that more than 80% of enterprises will have deployed vertical AI by 2026.
Companies are discovering that generic AI tools require endless customization to handle domain-specific rules, data formats, and compliance requirements. Vertical AI agents — systems that understand industry objects, workflows, and outcomes — are closing that gap. The budget has moved from "AI exploration" to "AI implementation" line items.
The market is rewarding this shift aggressively. AI agent startups raised $3.8 billion in 2024, nearly tripling 2023's total. Customer service and marketing automation are leading deployment categories, with enterprises rapidly moving AI agents from pilot to production.
In social and content specifically, the pattern is accelerating. TikTok's Symphony has moved from experimental to mainstream, generating five-second clips from product URLs for any TikTok for Business user. Real estate AI tools report concrete traction: RealEstateContent.ai charges $99/month or $899/year and claims "thousands of agents" have generated 110,000+ posts. The AI real estate market specifically is projected to grow from $2.9 billion in 2024 to $41.5 billion by 2033 — a 30.5% CAGR.
The horizontal players will continue to dominate press cycles and investor attention. The vertical players will quietly capture the margin and retention that matter.
The wedge: "Paste your [vertical asset] link, we run the whole play"
TokTak's value proposition is "paste any product URL." It's broad enough to attract attention and simple enough to explain. The problem is depth.
Before picking a vertical, understand what makes one defensible:
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