AI Raises the Floor. It Does Not Build the Ceiling

2-minute read

Most leaders are treating AI as a competitive advantage. The uncomfortable reality is that it is becoming the opposite, a floor every competitor now stands on equally.

A client called me recently, pleased with himself. He had just vibe coded an app. He is not a developer. He described what he wanted; an AI wrote the code; he iterated until it worked. The whole thing took an afternoon. He was not bragging about the app. He was telling me the barrier had dropped for everyone, including his competitors.

Once everyone stands on the same floor, the floor is not the advantage. The question is what you are building above it.

What Gets Commodified

Fast turnaround on analysis, polished first-draft content, basic data synthesis, working software prototypes: these can now be done faster and cheaper by anyone with a good prompt and twenty minutes. A lean, well-funded startup can challenge established players with a fraction of the headcount that would have been required five years ago. The barrier to entry has dropped in almost every field.

Your competitive advantage must come from somewhere AI cannot reach. The good news is that the most durable advantages are the ones you already had.

Where to Compete Instead

72% of CEOs surveyed by IBM already understand that proprietary data is the actual source of AI advantage.² Generic tools running on generic internet data produce generic results. The organizations pulling ahead are feeding AI their own customer data, their own workflows, their own accumulated institutional knowledge. That is not something a competitor can replicate by buying the same software license.

The practical move most leaders skip is a deliberate inventory of what your organization knows that no model can learn, your proprietary customer relationships, your hard-won process knowledge, the judgment your people carry from years of difficult decisions. Name these explicitly, then work them into how you deploy AI. That is what separates organizations that pull ahead from those that simply keep up.

One more watch point is that the disruption is not always coming from competitors you recognize. A client who leads a financial services firm told me that the mistake he sees most often is leaders scanning the horizon for familiar threats while entrants they have never heard of gain ground quietly. The most dangerous rivals may not be on your radar yet.

About the Author

Dr. Melissa Fristrom

Founder, Core Allies, LLC

Melissa Fristrom is the founder of Core Allies, LLC an executive coaching and advisory firm that works with C-suite leaders navigating inflection points. She advises senior leaders on strategy, organizational change, and the human side of technology adoption. Before founding Core Allies, she held senior leadership roles in frontline positions up to CEO. She is based in Boston.

The artwork in this post is from fristrom.art. Melissa works in encaustic, pigmented wax layered to explore how color carries emotion, perception, and meaning. It is a practice that runs parallel to the questions this series is asking about leadership: looking more carefully at what is actually in front of you, rather than what you expect to see.

If any of this landed, useful or uncomfortable, that's worth paying attention to. I work with leaders and their teams on exactly these questions. I'd love to connect.

mfristrom@coreallies.com · (617) 444-9809 · coreallies.com