AI’s Leveling the Business Playing Field

Mike Carr discusses how AI will revolutionize large companies by reducing the need for big workforces, boosting efficiency and profitability. This change will diminish large corporations' scale advantage, allowing smaller, agile companies to compete effectively. Sam Altman predicts AI will take over 95% of tasks currently done by agencies and creative professionals, leading marketers to shift to smaller firms or independent roles. Carr envisions a new industry where marketers combine creative skills with AI to support small businesses competing with larger ones. Despite disruptions, Carr remains optimistic about the opportunities for those who adapt and merge creativity with AI. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction: Leveling the playing field
• 1:13 The Reversal of Scale Advantage
• 2:33 Marketers in the Age of AI
• 3:46 Small Business Revolution: Leveraging AI
• 4:47 The Rise of a New Industry: Creative AI Integration
• 6:05 Embracing Change and Opportunities in the AI Era

Transcript

Mike Carr (00:04): 

We're going to talk about how AI is going to eradicate big companies. The days of most companies needing tens of thousands of employees, I believe, and I think others do too. It's coming to an end with AI and robotics and other tech companies that had tens of thousands of folks are actually going to be able to grow faster and deliver more profits to the bottom line with perhaps just hundreds of employees. And if they don't downsize, if they don't lean into technology, competitors that do that are faster and nimbler and agile are going to put 'em out of business. Big companies historically have been slow. They've been bureaucratic, but their big size has given them an advantage in the past. I don't believe this is the case any longer. Their large size is going to be their greatest competitive disadvantage. It's going to be a weakness to be big. 

(01:13): 

AI is going to be this great leveler. Here's something I've thought about that I think is significant. AI not just removes the size advantage, it actually reverses it. That's a big deal in most industries because historically, that scale, that reach, that depth of resources has been able, the big companies to outcompete, that's no longer going to be the case. Small has almost always been more agile and more nimble. Mark Schafer, who's written a number of books and is sort of a guru in this space, has talked about how in the future, the best marketers, the best branders, the best sales folks. It's all going to be about speed. This pace, this need to increase the general acceleration, the speed of business is going to become so important. And because AI is so cheap, there's no barrier to entry. So the small companies that have historically been the nimbler, the more agile, the faster can use AI to make up for the deficiencies that they've had in the past compared to the big companies. 

(02:33): 

And the big companies can also use AI to replace a lot of the employees, A lot of the folks that have skill sets that AI can now do, or at least supplement or compliment. Now, Sam Altman said here a few months ago, and this is a well-known quote when he was talking about ai. AI will mean that 95% of what use agencies and strategists and creative professionals for today, 95% will easily, nearly instantly, and at almost no cost be handled by ai. So Sam is one of the big guys at Open ai, and he's one of the industry visionaries, but there's been some disagreement and pushback about AI over the next couple of years, eliminating 95% of these jobs. What I think should be added to Sam's statement is 95% of what marketers at big companies use agencies and strategists and creative that will be eliminated. 

(03:46): 

Why? Because they're going away. The marketers at these big companies aren't going to be at big companies anymore, but there's an opportunity. Where are they going to go? Just like AI is going to eliminate a lot of the big companies, at least they won't have nearly as many employees. There's going to be an explosion of these small companies that can't effectively compete with companies that have historically been much larger than them. So a lot of these folks are either going to be on their own or they're going to go to work for some of these smaller companies, and they're going to be all kinds of mistakes made at these smaller companies, right? Because AI is seductive in how easy it seemingly makes writing great copy or doing something cool in social media, it makes it fast. It makes it easy, but misses some very foundational and fundamental things. 

(04:47): 

So the opportunity and almost this new industry that I think is going to be created are marketers who combine that creative, that artistic, that craft ability that historically has been such an important part of what agencies have delivered with an awareness and an ability to leverage AI and technology and pivot quickly and stay up to date with the newest apps, the newest agents that run on top of the LLMs. This is something very different, right? It's the combination of this creative with this ability to accelerate that creative and leverage that creative with the technology and the pace of change. This is a new industry, and the need for this industry is going to be coming from all these new small businesses that now can compete with the larger companies, but they're not necessarily competing the right way because they're trying to go down what just AI tells it, and they don't have the domain expertise in branding or in naming or in marketing or in sales to do it right. So the opportunity for us is huge, and I actually want to thank AI for this opportunity. We are going to see an explosion of jobs and careers and excitement for those that can embrace both the way it used to be done, that craft side, that creative, that think thoughtful thinking, pondering about the best solutions, but then accelerating it with the technology, the speed, and the efficiencies that AI bring to the table. Lots of disruption, lots of change, and lots of opportunity for those that can move quickly. See you next week.