GoKawiilHow to increase your competitive advantage when every company has access to the same AI capabilities The economics of knowledge work are changing in ways that are easy to underestimate. Before AI, people understood that producing competent work at scale required time, specialized skills, and organizational infrastructure. This meant that work activities like writing articles or building functional software came with meaningful costs. LLMs have driven those costs down to practically zero. Now AI’s output is the new average and “competent” execution is abundant.
The zero value of average work
Why This Matters
The piece argues that generative AI has collapsed the cost of producing competent, average-quality knowledge work, making baseline execution abundant rather than scarce. For companies and workers, that means competitive advantage can no longer rest on doing standard tasks well, since every organization has access to the same tools.
Key Takeaways
- AI has driven the cost of competent knowledge work close to zero, making 'average' output commoditized.
- Shared access to the same AI capabilities erodes execution as a source of differentiation.
- Firms and individuals must find advantage above the new AI-set baseline rather than in routine competence.
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