AI adoption is becoming a cost of doing business, not a competitive advantage

88% of companies now use AI in their operations. But adoption doesn't guarantee better profit margins.

In fact, as AI becomes standard, its efficiency gains are increasingly difficult to turn into a lasting competitive advantage.

When companies rely on the same third-party models and infrastructure, they compete away much of the value they create. The savings either flow upstream to infrastructure providers or pass to customers through lower prices. So where does the financial value actually stay?

It comes down to control over three things:

• Proprietary data: What makes your AI capabilities different?

• Commercial contracts: Who captures the value and controls the terms?

• Compute economics: Can you manage infrastructure costs as usage scales?

Treating AI purely as a procurement decision can create dependencies and variable costs that grow faster than revenue.

Adopting the same tools as everyone else may improve efficiency, but it doesn't automatically create an advantage.

If everyone has access to the same AI, what actually allows a company to keep the financial value it generates?