Money No Longer Moat in AI - Will This Loss of Competitive Advantage Spread to Other Sectors?

 AI in the US certainly had a blind spot, it turns out. 

DeepSeek, developed on the cheap in two months for $6 million, showcased that it's not necessary or all that protective to throw money at whatever. Bloomberg goes into detail how the DeepSeek model confirms that money is no longer a moat for the US AI industry.

Blowing up money-as-moat could also reconfigure the dynamics of other sectors.

For example, we have been experiencing for a number of years that the legal sector has been able to buy competitive advantage if the law firms have bulging war chests of money. That business operates on star power and it takes a lot of money to recruit, retain and motivate those stars. Law firms such as Kirkland & Ellis, Simpson, Latham and Paul Weiss have that money. Their brands embed that twinkling power.

But could this edge lessen? Will other law firms, less rich, come up, just like DeepSeek, with fresh models of doing business? Those could offer clients top-notch legal representations at significantly lower fees.

So much is changing in business. As a career coach I am guiding clients to navigate that upheaval. We might need the analogue of an artist like Charles Dickens, who captured the Industrial Age in his novels, to make sense of the emotional parts of these disruptions. There is so much pain in the workforce. 

Low on hope about finding, holding, or moving on to better work?  Getting that back is the first step. Then you and I, as your career coach, move on to diagnosing what's in the way, trying out the solutions and creating the communications you need. Free consultation. No pressure. After that, fees custom-made for your budget. Please contact for an appointment Jane Genova (text/phone 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com).