Sabine VanderLinden’s Post

I've always been a fan of Harvard Business Review's insightful articles, but their latest piece on AI is a bit weird. The article argues that because AI is readily available to everyone, individual companies can't attain a long-term competitive advantage from it. My point: AI's potential is both immense and largely undiscovered, so I expected HBR to delve into strategies companies can employ to capture new and differentiating value through AI. Instead, it feels like they've thrown in the towel before the game has even begun. Do you agree with HBR or do you think companies can leverage AI to achieve sustainable competitive advantages?

The latest Harvard Business Review article argues that while AI will revolutionize industries, it won’t provide a lasting competitive edge. Instead, AI’s value lies in amplifying existing business strengths—especially those difficult for others to replicate. Key Points: - AI creates value but isn’t a sustainable differentiator in the long run. - Early adopters will see gains, but those will diminish as AI becomes more widespread. - Companies with unique, hard-to-replicate assets can leverage AI to enhance their competitive position. What do you think? Is AI genuinely leveling the playing field, or can businesses find a way to maintain a competitive edge using AI innovatively? Check out the complete article and share your thoughts! Tomorrow, I will publish my article, which serves as a counterpoint to say, " Kinda, not really tho"  https://lnkd.in/eqp5YUCD

Augment and Invent ✨ 💡 In a recent substack post (https://lnkd.in/g4iCuVaY), the always insightful Rishad Tobaccowala presents "10 thoughts about AI, Humans and Work in 10 minutes". They are all worth pondering (although I would not invoke Suleyman in # 3) but one that struck a chord with me, Thought # 6, summarizes two important themes: human augmentation and business (re)invention. Here is the thought: "6. The simpler questions are about efficiency and effectiveness. The real question is more existential. AI will deliver efficiencies by getting things done faster and cheaper and as importantly more effectively by unleashing insights and freeing talent to work on areas where humans excel and let the math and pattern finding and the rest be done by the machine. But the smart companies are thinking about how to re-invent, re-imagine and re-think their business. In the world we live today with distributed and unbundled work, next generation technologies and multi-polar globalization why are more companies not re-imagining their businesses versus just focussing on making yesterdays model cheaper and more effective?" Obvious pockets of inefficiencies will be addressed with #AI in the short term by businesses, thereby quickly eliminating any competitive advantage (a point made very nicely by Martin Reeves in a recent HBR article https://lnkd.in/gsaHk4V2). Any sustainable advantage will have to come from new ideas about augmentation (that amplify a company's unique assets) and from novel ideas in general for businesses. So, first, augmentation. I have been for 25 years a proponent of thinking about "unleashing insights and freeing talent to work on areas where humans excel and let the math and pattern finding and the rest be done by the machine". What is missing from a lot of the discourse on augmentation is what form it should take, specifically, how do humans and AIs interface? The chatbot form factor has been surprisingly effective (surprising to me at least) at opening floodgates of creativity from all kinds of horizons. It can't be the last frontier of human-AI interfacing. That needs to be invented. Which takes us to the second part: (re)invention. The winners will use #genAI to create new products, services, experiences that are not even conceivable without AI. Business model disruption driven by AI is just beginning. When you product or service can be 80% replaced by a self-serve AI-based version at 0.001% of the cost, you have to seriously rethink where you create value. And as Rishad Tobaccowala writes in thought # 7, "A company’s best opportunities and threats are likely come from outside its immediate category and AI allows it to extend into new areas."

Incorporating AI is crucial for businesses aiming to stay ahead in today's competitive landscape. Merely implementing AI is just the start; the real value comes from integrating it effectively into a well-rounded business strategy. Wali's profound AI knowledge, coupled with a strategic transformative approach, empowers clients to elevate AI adoption into a potent competitive edge. #AIstrategy #BusinessInnovation #CompetitiveAdvantage

"Smart early movers in sectors adopting gen AI have certainly captured some of this value in the short term. But relatively soon all surviving companies in those sectors will have applied gen AI, and it won’t be a source of competitive advantage for any one of them, even where its impact on business and business practices will probably be profound. In fact, it will be more likely to remove a competitive advantage than to confer one. But here’s a silver lining: If you already have a competitive advantage that rivals cannot replicate using AI, the technology may serve to amplify the value you derive from that advantage."

In today's competitive landscape, leveraging AI alone won’t provide a sustainable advantage. As highlighted by Barney and Reeves, while generative AI can unlock significant value, it’s accessible to all players. To truly differentiate, companies must apply AI to amplify existing unique resources and capabilities that competitors can’t easily replicate. #AI #Strategy #Innovation #CompetitiveAdvantage #GenAI #BusinessTransformation #TechIntegration #ValueCreation #DigitalStrategy #FutureOfWork

I agree with Jeff Winter that AI is not just a tool, it's a partner in our decision-making and innovation processes. To fully leverage AI's disruptive power, we need an 'Industrial AI Mindset' that reimagines strategy, data, agility, and human-centric design. This isn't about applying AI to a few problems, it's about rewiring how we think, operate, and innovate. Key ingredients include strategic thinking, data-driven decisions, human-centric design, and agility. AI should be integrated into our overall business strategy, data should be used responsibly and shared openly, AI systems should empower humans, and businesses need to be agile to keep up with AI's rapid evolution. Let's embrace the future with a mindset built for disruption. Read more about it here: https://lnkd.in/dMbn3s-Y

https://lnkd.in/exkSgjma “Thus gen AI should be an integral part of your ongoing decision-making processes so that you can gain any temporary advantages that might be created from early applications of the technology while also benefiting from its ability to learn. Your first-mover advantages aren’t likely to last very long, however, since all your competitors can use gen AI in the same way.” #competitiveadvantage

Generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) has the potential to radically alter how business is conducted, and there’s no doubt that it will create a lot of value. Companies have used it to identify entirely new product opportunities and business models; to automate routine decisions, freeing humans to focus on decisions that involve ethical trade-offs, empathy, or imagination; to deliver customized professional services formerly available only to the wealthy; and to develop and communicate product and other recommendations to customers faster, more cheaply, and more informatively than was possible with human-driven processes. But, the authors ask, will companies be able to leverage gen AI to build a competitive advantage? The answer, they argue in this article, is no—unless you already have a competitive advantage that rivals cannot replicate using AI. Then the technology may serve to amplify the value you derive from that advantage. #AIandMachineLearning #CompetitiveStrategy #StarrAdvisoryGroup

The AI Revolution isn't coming. It's already here. But nobody's talking about the middle ground: Here's what actually works in 2024: • Start small: Learn one AI tool deeply • Focus on augmenting, not replacing • Keep humans in the loop • Test before you trust • Measure real results The winners aren't the AI experts. They're the practical optimists. The ones who see both sides. Who balance innovation with wisdom. I've trained 1,000+ professionals on this approach. Want to know the exact framework? Drop a "+" below.