If your people are replaceable , your business might be too
Today I read a very thought-provoking piece with the above mentioned title by Dave Edwards ( https://lnkd.in/dZEdqv5A )
It made me pause !!
There’s a growing narrative in tech circles that AI will replace knowledge workers. That efficiency equals intelligence. That fewer humans equals progress. But here’s the uncomfortable question:
If your people are truly replaceable .. what exactly is your (business) moat?
Well , AI can absolutely replace tasks ..
– it can draft
– summarise
– analyse patterns
– generate variations
– optimise flows ,, and lot more ..
But businesses are not built on tasks. They are built on:
– judgement
– context
– lived experience
– trust
– creative friction
– moral accountability .. and lot more ..
AI can simulate language .. it cannot own consequence.
AI can detect patterns .. it cannot define purpose.
If a company can swap its core thinking layer with a generic model available to everyone then the advantage was never proprietary .. it was procedural and/or temporal. And while procedures are always commoditised temporal advantages are short-lasting.
In my own work around decision systems and AI in commerce I’ve consistently argued that the real power of AI lies in augmentation and not elimination. AI should absorb cognitive load. Humans should define direction. AI should reduce complexity. Humans should carry intent.
The future doesn’t belong to organisations that remove humans from the loop. It belongs to those who design systems where .. machine calculates and human contemplates.
If your AI strategy is “replace the people” , you may gain short-term efficiency. But if your strategy is “amplify the people” , you build something far harder to replicate.
And in an era where everyone has access to the same models .. defensibility will not come from automation. It will come from judgement.
So , I’m curious to hear your perspective on this?
Q. are we building businesses that are “AI-enabled” or businesses that are “AI-dependent”?
Until next time , happy thinking !!
Author – Sumit Rajwade, Co-founder: mPrompto
