The last unfair advantage

When everyone has the same intelligence, what makes products different?

Every week there’s a new model or algorithm release. Everyone is going to claim theirs is faster, smarter, cheaper, or more capable.

I don’t think they’ll be the long-term differentiator.

Technology has always become accessible, sooner or later. Like cloud infrastructure and open-source software did.

LLMs are already heading in that direction.

Eventually, most companies will have access to very similar intelligence.

So what happens when everyone has roughly the same brain?

If you assume product advantage came from building better technology, the answer might be confusing.

Deciding what not to build.

Knowing when to act, and when not to.

Refusing to add a feature everyone else would proudly ship because it makes the product worse.

Those decisions still come from the people building around it. AI can generate hundreds of possible interfaces. It won’t tell you which one feels right for your users.

It can suggest five new features. It won’t tell you which one makes your product lose its identity.

As intelligence becomes cheaper, authenticity becomes more expensive.

Competing on opinion instead of technology, maybe that’s where product management is heading too.