AI makes the surface cheap, and real industry knowledge valuable
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
Yesterday, thanks to 吴校长, I had the chance to have dinner with a VC and a few founders.
At the table we talked about AI. Today, so much can be handed to AI. Documents come out beautifully written, pitch decks come out complete, and even strategy analysis can look very professional.
The VC used one word: commodity.
When everyone can use AI to produce something good-looking, that work slowly becomes a commodity. Everything is polished, everything is complete, and in the end everything looks about the same.
It reminded me of something Jessie once told me. She has seen a lot of pitch decks as a judge in startup competitions. Many decks are excellent, but when you actually ask the founders about what's inside, you find some of them don't really understand their own business that well.
What really matters in future may not be whether you can make something beautiful, but whether you truly understand the thing.
I asked the VC: if so much output is going to become a commodity, what will investors look at?
He said: the depth of a founder's understanding of their industry.
AI can help you organise, express and package. But it can't replace the judgment a person builds up over years inside an industry.
Take Andy, who has been running the fried chicken brand Golden Bons for decades. He understands chicken, marinades, packaging and customers, and he understands the practical problems franchisees face on the ground. How to keep the coating from falling off, how to package it without ruining the texture: you don't learn that from reading a few articles.
Behind it isn't just knowledge. It's experience, earned on the ground through trial after trial.
AI will be powerful, but it doesn't help everyone equally.
People who understand their field will use AI to become faster and stronger, and get more done. People who don't may only produce something that looks beautiful but has no roots.
From here, people who really know their industry won't have an easier time. They'll be busier, because AI amplifies what they can do and lets them push more things forward at once.
And people without industry experience will be easier to see through. Because when everyone presents well, the real gap is no longer in presentation, but in understanding.
AI will make the surface cheaper and cheaper.
But it will also make people with real depth in their industry more and more valuable.