The thesis that in an era of commoditized AI technology, the only durable competitive moat is methodology — the specific way you help customers get to outcomes — not the technology itself.
"Technology was never a moat. You could always
copy features. You could always copy products. The thing that's so
hard to copy is the methodology — because people never think that's
the reason why you're winning. They think it's the technology. It's
not. It's that we know the process, we've mapped it out, we
executed so well."
Why it matters
Companies pouring resources into AI features
are racing against every other company doing the same thing. The
companies that win are the ones who pair commodity technology with
proprietary methodology for getting customers to outcomes.
Examples
The personal trainer with six-pack abs
There are two kinds of personal trainers. The first promises you can eat pizza, drink beer, work out twice a week, and have six-pack abs in 90 days. The second tells you the truth: weighing your food, training five days a week, sleeping eight hours, sustained for a year, will get you partway there. The first trainer has clients. The second trainer has results. The principle: the credible Customer Success or implementation partner is the one who is honest about what success requires, not the one who promises it will be easy. The methodology moat is built by being the trainer who tells the truth, because what compounds is the customer outcomes, not the comfortable feeling during the pitch.