AI is levelling everyone. It is making us all roughly as good at the average task. The average email, the average deck, the average analysis, the average line of code. And the moment everyone can produce a competent version of something, that something is worth nothing.
Most of us have not noticed. We point AI at the work we already do, get it done cheaper, and call it an advantage. It isn't. It is a race to the bottom where the prize is being indistinguishable from your competitors, sooner.
The floor is rising. The floor is not where you compete
The floor is rising for everyone. Which means the floor is no longer where you compete. Your moat was never the competent execution. It was the judgement behind it, the taste, the context only you hold, the ability to pick the right problem in the first place. AI does not touch any of that.
I have spent my career running services teams, which is where this temptation bites hardest. Automating the existing model is the easy, visible win. The business case writes itself: same work, fewer hours, lower cost. But it was never a services problem. It is a strategy problem wearing a technology costume.
A position I will defend
So here is a position I will defend. The judgement of your best people is the scarcest resource any business has. I would not spend it making yesterday's work faster. I would spend it on the problems a machine cannot touch.
It is a bet, and the maths is simple. Get it wrong one way and you were merely efficient. Get it wrong the other way — faster at the same things while the game moved on — and you were irrelevant. I know which risk I would rather carry.
The ceiling is still entirely human
The tools raise the floor. The ceiling is still entirely human. It is the only thing left worth competing on, and the only thing that is actually yours.