I’ve used upwards of 10 billion AI tokens this year, and I’ve spent more than 100 consecutive days working with AI.
I’ve been using these models almost daily since ChatGPT launched in late 2022.
And honestly, the improvement from last year to this year has been F*cking insane.
Every new model surprises me more than the last and makes me more concerned about what all of this means for entrepreneurs.
Because as these models continue improving, one thing is becoming increasingly clear:
Being able to build software is no longer a moat.
For years, software was one of the best businesses you could start because building it was difficult. You needed engineers, capital, time and technical knowledge.
That barrier is disappearing incredibly quickly.
Soon, almost anyone will be able to describe an app, have an agent build it, test it, deploy it, create the landing page, write the App Store listing and produce the ads.
That sounds incredible
and it is.
But when everyone can build, the number of products explodes.
Software starts looking more like e-commerce: endless competitors, interchangeable products, thin differentiation, rising acquisition costs and an arms race for attention.
Except software may have even less natural consumer demand than physical products.
For the first time in a long time, I genuinely don’t know where this leaves 90% of online entrepreneurs.
I keep hearing engineers and indie hackers say:
“It’s all about taste.”
I think that’s mostly cope.
Taste matters at the extremes. It matters when you’re building something culturally important, creating a category or designing for highly discerning customers.
But for most products, most advertisements and most content, the consumer doesn’t need exceptional taste.
They need something that is clear, useful and good enough.
And AI is rapidly becoming good enough.
I saw this firsthand today.
I had Codex create a LinkedIn post for a startup client. It generated the copy, created the image and prepared the entire post.
Without me realizing it, the post was published.
For context, I’ve run multiple social accounts past 100,000 followers across different platforms. I’ve also managed this startup’s social accounts for a long time.
For the first time in more than a year, the founder messaged me:
“Love this.”
He has only sent me a handful of messages about posts he genuinely liked.
And this one was created and uploaded almost entirely by AI.
That was a strange moment.
I’d like to believe my experience gives me some irreplaceable creative judgment. But the result that got the strongest reaction from the client barely involved me.
That’s when it clicked:
What creators, marketers and designers consider “tasteful” may matter far less commercially than we want to admit.
Most people cannot tell whether something was painstakingly handcrafted or generated in 30 seconds.
They only care whether it works.
And this doesn’t stop with software.
Look at YouTube.
Scripts are being generated by AI. Thumbnails are being generated by AI. Research, editing, hooks and titles are increasingly assisted by AI.
Can 90% of viewers tell when it’s done well?
Probably not.
So what happens?
More people can make competent videos.
More people can build competent software.
More people can launch competent agencies.
More people can produce competent advertisements.
The opportunity to create has never been greater but the amount of competition has never been worse.
Some people say services are the safe place to go.
But services will be commoditized too.
If one person with agents can perform the work of an entire agency, that initially creates incredible margins.
Then everyone starts an agency.
Companies may choose to hire fewer employees and outsource more functions to specialized operators but every one of those operators will be competing against thousands of AI-native competitors with almost identical capabilities.
Fulfilment becomes easy.
Outbound, distribution, relationships and trust become the entire game.
And best outbound wins.
It probably won’t be you every time.
Other people say blue-collar businesses are safe.
Maybe they’re safer from direct automation but where does the spending come from?
If a meaningful percentage of white-collar workers lose income or bargaining power, that eventually affects discretionary spending on renovations, landscaping, restaurants, vehicles and private services.
There may genuinely be no perfectly safe business.
Software gets easier to copy.
Agencies get easier to launch.
Content gets easier to produce.
E-commerce already operates in a brutal sea of competition.
Physical businesses are harder to automate, but they still depend on the broader economy.
So where do we go from here?
I don’t have a clean answer.
My current belief is that the real moat is shifting away from production.
It’s becoming ownership of distribution, trust, customer relationships, proprietary data, transactions, physical infrastructure and attention.
The question is no longer:
“What can I build?”
Because soon, almost anyone will be able to build almost anything.
The better question is:
“What valuable position can I own that someone else cannot recreate by opening the same AI model?”
AI has given individual entrepreneurs capabilities that would have required entire companies only a few years ago.
But it has given those capabilities to everyone else too.
Our leverage has never been greater.
Our individual advantage has never been less secure.
This is quite literally the best and worst time in history to be an entrepreneur.
Where do you think the opportunity moves from here?
I’ve been using these models almost daily since ChatGPT launched in late 2022.
And honestly, the improvement from last year to this year has been F*cking insane.
Every new model surprises me more than the last and makes me more concerned about what all of this means for entrepreneurs.
Because as these models continue improving, one thing is becoming increasingly clear:
Being able to build software is no longer a moat.
For years, software was one of the best businesses you could start because building it was difficult. You needed engineers, capital, time and technical knowledge.
That barrier is disappearing incredibly quickly.
Soon, almost anyone will be able to describe an app, have an agent build it, test it, deploy it, create the landing page, write the App Store listing and produce the ads.
That sounds incredible
and it is.
But when everyone can build, the number of products explodes.
Software starts looking more like e-commerce: endless competitors, interchangeable products, thin differentiation, rising acquisition costs and an arms race for attention.
Except software may have even less natural consumer demand than physical products.
For the first time in a long time, I genuinely don’t know where this leaves 90% of online entrepreneurs.
I keep hearing engineers and indie hackers say:
“It’s all about taste.”
I think that’s mostly cope.
Taste matters at the extremes. It matters when you’re building something culturally important, creating a category or designing for highly discerning customers.
But for most products, most advertisements and most content, the consumer doesn’t need exceptional taste.
They need something that is clear, useful and good enough.
And AI is rapidly becoming good enough.
I saw this firsthand today.
I had Codex create a LinkedIn post for a startup client. It generated the copy, created the image and prepared the entire post.
Without me realizing it, the post was published.
For context, I’ve run multiple social accounts past 100,000 followers across different platforms. I’ve also managed this startup’s social accounts for a long time.
For the first time in more than a year, the founder messaged me:
“Love this.”
He has only sent me a handful of messages about posts he genuinely liked.
And this one was created and uploaded almost entirely by AI.
That was a strange moment.
I’d like to believe my experience gives me some irreplaceable creative judgment. But the result that got the strongest reaction from the client barely involved me.
That’s when it clicked:
What creators, marketers and designers consider “tasteful” may matter far less commercially than we want to admit.
Most people cannot tell whether something was painstakingly handcrafted or generated in 30 seconds.
They only care whether it works.
And this doesn’t stop with software.
Look at YouTube.
Scripts are being generated by AI. Thumbnails are being generated by AI. Research, editing, hooks and titles are increasingly assisted by AI.
Can 90% of viewers tell when it’s done well?
Probably not.
So what happens?
More people can make competent videos.
More people can build competent software.
More people can launch competent agencies.
More people can produce competent advertisements.
The opportunity to create has never been greater but the amount of competition has never been worse.
Some people say services are the safe place to go.
But services will be commoditized too.
If one person with agents can perform the work of an entire agency, that initially creates incredible margins.
Then everyone starts an agency.
Companies may choose to hire fewer employees and outsource more functions to specialized operators but every one of those operators will be competing against thousands of AI-native competitors with almost identical capabilities.
Fulfilment becomes easy.
Outbound, distribution, relationships and trust become the entire game.
And best outbound wins.
It probably won’t be you every time.
Other people say blue-collar businesses are safe.
Maybe they’re safer from direct automation but where does the spending come from?
If a meaningful percentage of white-collar workers lose income or bargaining power, that eventually affects discretionary spending on renovations, landscaping, restaurants, vehicles and private services.
There may genuinely be no perfectly safe business.
Software gets easier to copy.
Agencies get easier to launch.
Content gets easier to produce.
E-commerce already operates in a brutal sea of competition.
Physical businesses are harder to automate, but they still depend on the broader economy.
So where do we go from here?
I don’t have a clean answer.
My current belief is that the real moat is shifting away from production.
It’s becoming ownership of distribution, trust, customer relationships, proprietary data, transactions, physical infrastructure and attention.
The question is no longer:
“What can I build?”
Because soon, almost anyone will be able to build almost anything.
The better question is:
“What valuable position can I own that someone else cannot recreate by opening the same AI model?”
AI has given individual entrepreneurs capabilities that would have required entire companies only a few years ago.
But it has given those capabilities to everyone else too.
Our leverage has never been greater.
Our individual advantage has never been less secure.
This is quite literally the best and worst time in history to be an entrepreneur.
Where do you think the opportunity moves from here?
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?
