AI compresses the distance between information and judgment. It also compresses the distance between people and their competitors. The question is whether competitive advantages now disappear faster than they can be built.
In a recent conversation, Jordi Visser framed the shift directly. “AI is different because it competes directly with the one thing human beings have… which is a brain.” Work built around thinking, analysis, and judgment is now exposed to a different kind of pressure. In a separate conversation, Albert Berdellans described how this works in practice. “We reduce the amount of time from when you know something to when you know what it means.” When the gap between data and interpretation narrows, more people can act with speed and clarity. Work that once required teams and time can now be done by individuals using AI to think, build, and iterate.
Consider a small team building a product with AI tools that match the output of a much larger organization. They reach the market faster and improve the product through rapid iteration. Customers adopt it because it solves their problems more effectively. The incumbent loses share and the smaller team gains revenue. The system improves as customers receive better products, lower prices, or both. More people can now build and more ideas can reach the market. Some will fail. Others will succeed and raise the standard. Established firms face rising pressure as a result.
Visser explains that AI gives distinct advantages to the small company and that the competitive moats of large companies are doomed. So do competitive advantages disappear faster than they can be built? They move faster. They also get built more often, by more people, at lower cost. That is the defining shift.
Fears of job losses from AI are understandable because some categories of work will disappear. Self-driving systems are a clear example. Millions of people currently drive for a living, and those roles would be removed if the task is automated. At the same time, a much larger shift takes place across the system. Hundreds of millions of people spend time each day driving themselves to work, to meetings, and between activities. If that time is no longer required for driving, it becomes available for other uses. That is an enormous release of human time and expands the amount of effort applied to solving problems, building products, and testing ideas. As more people act, more opportunities are pursued. The rate at which competitive advantages are created rises with it.
In my earlier essay on how to use AI, I focused on the distinction between humans and these systems. The value comes from how these capabilities combine:
When those strengths remain central, the effect is to expand what people can do.
This pattern has appeared before. When spreadsheets automated calculation, the task disappeared. The work did not. Analysts ran more scenarios, explored more complex problems, and produced more valuable output. The role expanded. Competitive advantages do not disappear in that process. They become more dynamic.
The system benefits as more people are able to build, compete, and create value. The pressure on existing firms reflects that expansion. The question is not whether AI compresses advantage. It does. The question is whether human capability remains central to creating it. If it does, advantages will continue to be built faster than they are lost.
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