Tom has a point. AI will destroy every competitive moat.
When anyone can replicate your product in an afternoon, a lot of traditional advantages disappear.
But I think he’s missing something important.
The internet, and subsequently AI, have dramatically lowered the barriers to writing and publishing books. The catalogue has exploded, and practically anyone can now become an author.
Guess what? People still buy books, search for great reads and follow writers they trust.
Abundance doesn’t eliminate demand. It makes quality, reputation and discovery increasingly valuable.
AI will accelerate this phenomenon across almost every industry.
And I think this is fantastic news for the one-person business, rather than the opposite.
For the first time, a single individual will be able to compete in markets that previously required entire teams, substantial capital and years of development.
Sure, your competitors will have access to the same tools. But so will you. And a small, adaptable business might have a considerable advantage over an organisation carrying decades of bureaucracy and overhead.
I suspect the real competitive advantage will increasingly be your ability to adapt, develop good judgment, recognise opportunities and keep creating things people actually want.
Distribution will become more important than ever. Having an audience that trusts you, and ideally a direct channel to reach them, will be an enormous advantage when everyone can produce almost anything.
Your competitors might replicate what you built yesterday. Replicating your reputation, relationships and ability to evolve is considerably harder.
The greatest opportunity AI creates might be allowing one person to build what previously required a hundred.
The barrier to entry is collapsing for everyone. That’s precisely why I’m so optimistic about the individual.
Any additional ability you feel you will gain for creating what you desire will be completely nullified by the absolute destruction of the barrier to entry. You will be unable to maintain anything in the form of a moat or USP, as your efforts will be immediately replicable.