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Episode 119 - Surviving the AI-Driven Expertise Shake Up

By: Richard Buckle on May 8, 2025 4:02:16 PM

The SME Growth Podcast
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In this thought-provoking episode of The SME Growth Podcast, Dave Parry and Rich Buckhorn from Wellmeadow discuss how AI is fundamentally changing the competitive landscape for businesses. Going beyond the efficiency benefits, they explore the strategic implications of mass AI adoption and how it's reshaping competitive advantages across industries. This episode challenges business owners to rethink their strategic positioning in an era where knowledge and expertise are becoming increasingly democratised.

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Key Topics Discussed:

  • The Disappearing Expertise Moat: Is your business's competitive advantage at risk? Dave and Rich explore what happens when your expertise becomes universally accessible to competitors and customers.

  • Triple Payoff from AI Adoption: Discover the three main benefits businesses are experiencing from embracing AI technologies - from process efficiency to strategic focus.

  • Strategic Reframing: How service-based businesses can move from selling expertise to crafting experiences and solving deeper customer problems.

  • Workplace Transformation: Learn how AI is lifting workforce performance, particularly helping below-average performers reach the average, creating a more capable team.

  • Future-Proofing Your Business: Practical approaches to developing business models that thrive in an AI-powered world where knowledge alone isn't enough.

Quotes to Remember

  • "Imagine your biggest competitive advantage has just disappeared overnight. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to cry into your beer? Or are you going to develop some other expertise?"

  • "You say there are three main payoffs from mass AI adoption: AI is making knowledge and expertise more ubiquitous, process efficiency, and sharper strategic focus."

  • "We are using AI as well as our own expertise to develop different models of different growth engines that suit different industries."

  • "It's not so much that we do the process as fast, but the processes themselves cut stuff out or automate or outsource or use agents."

  • "Maybe carry on asking the question not what can I do, but what do you need? What problem am I solving? What pain am I making go away?"

Top Takeaways:

  • Recognise the Strategic Threat: Knowledge-based competitive advantages are increasingly at risk as AI democratises expertise. Conduct the thought experiment: what if your core advantage became free and universally available?

  • Focus on Experience Over Knowledge: As information becomes commoditised, businesses need to shift from selling knowledge to crafting meaningful customer experiences that AI can't easily replicate.

  • Leverage the Triple Benefits: Smart AI adoption delivers process efficiency, improves workforce capabilities (especially raising below-average performers), and enables sharper strategic focus.

  • Codify Unique Expertise: Protect your advantage by capturing proprietary knowledge in AI-ready formats that build upon public data with your organisation's unique insights and experiences.

  • Reframe Your Value Proposition: Ask not "what am I good at?" but "what problem am I solving?" to stay relevant as customers gain the ability to perform tasks they once outsourced.

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