Last week, I sat across from a founder who'd paid me £4,000 for a two-hour strategy session. We were thirty minutes in when he suddenly went quiet. Then he said something that made me put down my pen.
"I just realized... there's literally nothing about my business that AI can't replicate in the next two years."
He looked genuinely shaken. And he should be. Because he's right.
I've had this conversation seventeen times in the past three months. Different industries, different sizes, different business models. But the same creeping realization: the things that made their businesses unique, their competitive advantages, their moat, are evaporating faster than anyone wants to admit.
The uncomfortable truth? Most businesses have about 24 months before AI commoditizes every advantage they currently have. And I'm not being dramatic. If anything, I'm being generous.
When Everything Becomes Nothing
Think about what made your business special three years ago. Maybe it was your proprietary technology. Your exceptional customer service. Your efficient operations. Your data insights. Your unique processes..
Now ask yourself: can AI replicate that?
If you're being honest, the answer is probably yes. And not in five years or ten years. Soon. Really soon.
I watch this happening in real-time. A SaaS founder tells me about their "proprietary algorithms" that took years to develop. Except AI can now recreate similar functionality in weeks. A service business brags about their highly trained team. But AI agents are being trained on millions of interactions instantly, providing 24/7 support with perfect recall and infinite patience.