AI is No Longer a Competitive Advantage

There was a time—just two years ago or so—when adopting AI gave organizations a clear competitive edge.

Companies like Moderna went all in on AI transformation and the results were staggering: with just a few thousand people, they functioned like a team of 100,000. AI allowed them to be more efficient and effective, and they fostered a culture of learning and experimentation that, by all accounts, still exists today.

Over time, though, other companies followed. They invested in AI talent and technology, and while the speed, effectiveness, and ROI varied, most launched initiatives that delivered meaningful business outcomes.

Early adopters like Moderna had the first-mover advantage—and they used it well.

However, that first-mover advantage was short lived, and it disappeared faster than most of us expected. “The time between gen AI capabilities being a competitive advantage and becoming a competitive necessity is dramatically shorter than it was in earlier technological transitions,” McKinsey notes in an excellent piece from earlier this year.

Which means that what was once a differentiator is now a baseline imperative. Everyone you compete with is using AI—and some are already using it better than you.

Your differentiator needs to shift.

The Real Edge is Speed

Speed has always mattered in one way or another to a business.

Speed to market, speed to scale, and now speed to adoption. Speed—which AI can help you with—is, and always has been, a superpower.

How quickly can you experiment inside your organization? How quickly can you prove—or disprove—a hypothesis? How quickly can you fail, reset, and go again?

AI may no longer be your competitive advantage, but speed, which you can always increase, can be—if you prioritize it.

That’s what you need to be thinking about right now. Speed. How fast can you be.

James Currier, founder of famed venture capital firm NfX, likes to say that there are four primary benefits to speed for startups, but I think they hold true for enterprise organizations as well.

• Speed means your product or service gets better, faster.
• Speed means you and your team have more fun when you get more done.
• Speed is inherently seductive, which means you’ll generate more attention from potential customers, employees, press, and investors.
• Speed means your company’s valuation will go up, while your costs will go down.

That’s the power of speed. That’s the advantage still available to you. That’s what matters right now.

In a market where AI is the baseline, speed is what separates companies that adapt and grow from those that fall behind.

Hurry.