How to protect your business when AI commoditizes everything?
The rules just changed.
When everyone can create unlimited content, launch endless campaigns, and scale operations at near-zero cost, producing more stops being an advantage. It just adds to the noise.
AI didn't level the playing field. It collapsed it. Anyone can now access capabilities that once took years and millions of dollars to develop. The barrier to entry dropped from years of investment to a few API calls.
If you're still competing on volume or technical capability, you're fighting yesterday's battle.
Why traditional moats are crumbling
Three advantages that used to protect businesses have lost their power:
Proprietary data doesn't protect you anymore. Companies spent decades building unique datasets, creating barriers competitors couldn't easily cross. But large language models changed that. What once required years of data collection is now available through APIs. Platforms like Hugging Face host thousands of pre-trained models that anyone can download and customize for free.
Technical skills are now commoditized. When OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic made powerful models widely available, they eliminated technical differentiation. Anyone can access advanced AI capabilities now, so having the technology itself doesn't set you apart. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged this shift: "As AI gets more efficient and accessible, we will see its use skyrocket, turning into a commodity."
Specialized expertise is easily replicated. In healthcare, AI reads X-rays more accurately than many radiologists. In legal work, financial analysis, and marketing copywriting, tasks once requiring years of training get done by AI services at a fraction of the cost. Knowledge that took a career to build can now be accessed instantly and cheaply.
Where real competitive advantage moved
When AI makes baseline capabilities available to everyone, value moves in a specific direction. It flows toward those who can apply these tools in ways that solve specific problems better than anyone else.
For service businesses and consultancies, this means one thing: stop trying to know more than everyone else. Start solving problems more deeply than anyone else.
The only two brand moats that still work
Only two types of protection remain sustainable for most businesses:
Brand moat #1: Momentum through proprietary learning
Momentum means getting better faster than your competitors, but not by doing more work. You get better by learning from every project and turning those lessons into frameworks that compound over time.
Most service businesses collect client data but never actually use it. They finish a project, maybe write a case study, then move on. Meanwhile, every engagement contains signals about what works, what doesn't, and why. Hidden patterns emerge across multiple projects. Unexpected insights surface during implementation.
When you systematically capture these insights and refine your methods, you create something competitors can't easily copy. According to Brim Labs' research on AI competitive advantages, while AI models themselves are becoming commoditized, "a dataset that captures the subtleties of your users, workflows, and outcomes is extremely hard to replicate."
This creates a flywheel:
- Your early clients help you build initial frameworks
- Each new project generates insights that improve those frameworks
- Better frameworks deliver better results
- Better results attract better clients
- Better clients generate richer insights
- The cycle accelerates
The gap between you and competitors widens with every project because you're building on accumulated, specific learning they don't have.
Brand moat #2: Trust through clear point of view
Brand protection now comes from a trusted point of view and a compelling vision for where your industry should go, not from logos or taglines.
When AI makes technical work commoditized, brand becomes the deciding factor. Think about how you choose who to work with when multiple options seem technically capable. You pick whoever you trust most and whose perspective aligns with yours.
The numbers prove this shift. IBM's research surveying over 4,000 executives found that 87% of CEOs made a purchase decision directly influenced by thought leadership they consumed. You guest the ROI? 156%, which is 16 to 17 times greater than typical marketing campaigns.
Most companies fail to build emotional connections with customers, but those that succeed see transformational results. Customers with emotional connections have 306% higher lifetime value. They stay longer, buy more, and refer others.
Here's what changed: people used to buy based on "what you do" or "how you do it." Now they buy based on why you do it and where you believe the industry should head.
Look at how some companies built brand moats quickly:
Figma didn't win by being safer than Adobe. They showed design teams a better way to collaborate that matched how people actually wanted to work.
Linear isn't beating Jira on features. They convinced developers that project management could be fast and beautiful instead of clunky and slow.
Slack became essential by articulating a vision for team communication, not by building better email.
These companies built protection not through decades in business, but by articulating visions that attracted believers. Their customers don't just use the product. They advocate for what these companies represent.
Why doing less gets you better clients
Volume stopped being leverage. Doing less, but doing it deeper, became the path to premium clients.
The problem with chasing volume
When everyone can produce unlimited content and launch countless campaigns, "more" loses its value. Most businesses see competitors using AI to multiply output and think they need to do the same. They use AI to create more blog posts, send more emails, and chase more leads.
The result? They get worse outcomes, not better ones. Why? Because they multiplied volume instead of depth. They're still playing the old game after the rules changed.
More content means more shallow engagement. More leads means more tire-kickers who waste your time. More clients means less attention to each relationship, which means less learning, weaker results, and thinner margins.
What doing less actually looks like
Businesses winning right now aren't producing the most content or chasing the most leads. They're creating the deepest value for fewer, more carefully chosen clients.
Doing less means:
Expertise you can't get from AI. Real insight comes from years of focused experience working on specific problems. You can't prompt your way to that kind of knowledge. Research shows expertise creates one of the strongest competitive advantages, but only when you make it visible. The fastest-growing service firms (those growing 20% or more yearly) make their expertise visible through speaking, writing, and publishing original research.
Relationships that go beyond transactions. Moving from 50 shallow client relationships to 10 deep partnerships changes everything. You already know that 65% of revenue typically comes from existing customers, and finding new customers costs five to seven times more than keeping current ones. But deep relationships create something more valuable: partners who understand your approach, trust your judgment, and refer others who think the same way.
Methods built for specific problems. Generic solutions attract price shoppers. Specific methods built for particular challenges attract people willing to pay for real expertise. Companies using their own accumulated data with AI get faster, better results because they're building on specific, real-world learning.
When you do less, you have the capacity to go deeper with each engagement. Deeper work creates better results. Better results create stronger case studies. Stronger case studies attract premium clients who value transformation over transactions.
How your positioning needs to change
Doing less requires rethinking how you describe what you do.
Instead of: "We do [service] for [broad market]",
Try: "We solve [specific problem] for [specific people] because we believe [compelling vision]"
Instead of listing features, processes, and credentials as differentiators,
Lead with your point of view, unique insights, and proven method.
Instead of creating tips, trends, and surface advice, share deep insights, contrarian thinking, and real stories from actual work,
Your positioning should naturally repel shallow buyers while attracting those who value depth.
The only way to win in this AI era is being hyper-specific, by answer these two questions first:
- Who is it for? And who isn't it for?
- What specific problem does it solve?
Shallow thinking will inevitably lead to average results.
There's only one way forward: Be hyper-specific. Be hyper-deep.
How to build these brand moats
Build momentum by capturing what you learn
Start capturing insights from every client project systematically. What worked and why? What patterns emerge across multiple clients? What surprised you during implementation? What feedback revealed hidden needs?
Your accumulated learning creates protection competitors can't copy because they haven't done the work. They don't have your specific experience solving specific problems for specific clients.
Keep your data organized and clean. Bad or messy data leads to bad decisions. Use tools to organize information so it stays valuable over time.
Turn what you capture into reusable frameworks. Raw information isn't useful until you analyze it and extract principles. Use AI to find patterns, but apply your judgment to build frameworks that improve with each use.
The real power comes from frameworks that get better with every application. Companies that treat their accumulated learning as a core asset lead in their markets because they compound advantages over time.
Build your brand moat through thought leadership
Thought leadership delivers measurable returns. Business leaders spend roughly two hours per week consuming thought leadership, and for many large organizations, this translates to hundreds of millions in influenced purchasing decisions.
Share your best insights upfront. What you used to save for paying clients should become your marketing content. Give away high-quality insights based on real experience. Just don't include the exact implementation steps.
Challenge beliefs everyone else accepts. Push back on conventional wisdom. Share what didn't work and why. Research shows marketing that creates emotional connection succeeds at twice the rate of purely rational content.
Tell stories from actual projects. Show how you solved real problems for real clients. Skip theory and share specific details that demonstrate how you think and work.
Make every piece demonstrate depth others can't match. Comprehensive coverage of specific topics drives better engagement and positions you as the definitive expert in that particular area.
Why personal brand matters more now
For consultants and service business owners, your personal brand creates protection AI can't eliminate.
Personal branding relies on human qualities like empathy, creativity, and authentic storytelling. AI can help you work faster, but it can't replicate the credibility that comes from being a real person with real experience solving real problems.
When technical capabilities become available to everyone, people buy from whoever they trust most. Research shows that 80% of hiring managers now reject AI-generated applications specifically because they lack authenticity and depth. Recruiters report drowning in generic, AI-written content that all sounds identical.
Your personal brand built on genuine expertise and clear perspective becomes the filter that attracts the right people and naturally repels those who wouldn't be good fits anyway.
Two paths forward
You face a choice right now.
The first path: join the volume race. Use AI to create more content, chase more leads, serve more clients. Compete on breadth, speed, and price. Watch profits shrink as every competitor gets the same tools. Become interchangeable.
The second path: do less, but do it deeper. Use AI to amplify your expertise rather than replace it. Build methods that improve with each project. Create thought leadership that positions you as the expert in solving specific problems. Move from many shallow relationships to fewer deep partnerships with people who value strategic thinking.
The evidence supports the second path. Companies with strong brand positioning see returns 2.5 times higher over three years. Emotionally connected customers deliver 306% higher lifetime value. Thought leadership generates returns 16 to 17 times higher than typical marketing. Service firms that specialize and make their expertise visible grow 20% or more yearly.
Do less, but do it deeper.
The brand moats AI can't cross: being deeper.
AI didn't eliminate competitive advantage. It revealed what competitive advantage actually is.
Real protection comes from momentum (how fast you learn and compound insights from real work) and brand (the trust you earn through depth, expertise, and a clear vision). These create brand moats AI can't commoditize because they require human judgment, earned experience, and genuine relationships. Those things take time to build and can't be replicated by anyone with an API key.
When everyone can create more, the winners create deeper. When everyone chases volume, the winners do less.
Your best clients come from doing less because doing less gives you the capacity to create the depth those clients actually value. They're not looking for another vendor who can do more tasks faster. They're looking for a partner who can solve their specific problem better than anyone else.
The question isn't whether this shift will happen. The question is whether you'll adapt while you still have time to build these advantages, or whether you'll keep chasing volume until depth becomes impossible to achieve.
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Written by Hieu Vu with Perplexity and Claude AI