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What that means for professions and businesses that relied on knowledge.",[19],{"name":20,"content":12},"author",[22],{"name":23,"bg":24,"text":25,"hoverBg":26,"hoverText":27},"our-takes","#FFE6E6","#CC0000","#FFC7C7","#990000",{"type":29,"children":30,"toc":408},"root",[31,50,57,98,232,237,241,247,252,316,347,353,358,364,378,384,389,403],{"type":32,"tag":33,"props":34,"children":35},"element","p",{},[36,39,48],{"type":37,"value":38},"text","Knowledge no longer protects the professionals and businesses that rely on it. A professional's expertise used to be scarce enough to justify the price of their time. A new product was protected by how much it cost a competitor to copy it. AI now supplies much of that expertise and has cut the cost of copying. Yet most businesses still work, price and plan as though expertise were scarce. In the United Kingdom, 35% of businesses with ten or more employees use some form of AI, but only one in ten of those uses it extensively (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":41,"children":45},"a",{"href":42,"rel":43},"https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/articles/artificialintelligenceinukbusinesses/2023to2026",[44],"nofollow",[46],{"type":37,"value":47},"ONS, July 2026",{"type":37,"value":49},").",{"type":32,"tag":51,"props":52,"children":54},"h3",{"id":53},"from-expertise-to-sign-off",[55],{"type":37,"value":56},"From expertise to sign-off",{"type":32,"tag":33,"props":58,"children":59},{},[60,62,69,71,78,80,87,89,96],{"type":37,"value":61},"A model has been trained on more of a profession's written knowledge than any practitioner could read in a career. It applies that knowledge in seconds, so even a professional whose judgement matches the model's is slower. The leading models, including Anthropic's ",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":63,"children":66},{"href":64,"rel":65},"https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/models/overview",[44],[67],{"type":37,"value":68},"Claude Opus 5.5",{"type":37,"value":70},", OpenAI's ",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":72,"children":75},{"href":73,"rel":74},"https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models",[44],[76],{"type":37,"value":77},"GPT-6 Astra",{"type":37,"value":79}," and Google's ",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":81,"children":84},{"href":82,"rel":83},"https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/models",[44],[85],{"type":37,"value":86},"Gemini 4 Argon",{"type":37,"value":88},", can work with a million tokens of context or more. That is enough to read a full set of contracts or a substantial codebase in a single pass. Meta advertises ten million tokens for its open-weight ",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":90,"children":93},{"href":91,"rel":92},"https://ai.meta.com/blog/llama-4-multimodal-intelligence/",[44],[94],{"type":37,"value":95},"Llama 4 Scout",{"type":37,"value":97},".",{"type":32,"tag":99,"props":100,"children":101},"ul",{},[102,131,141,166,176,195,213],{"type":32,"tag":103,"props":104,"children":105},"li",{},[106,112,114,121,123,130],{"type":32,"tag":107,"props":108,"children":109},"strong",{},[110],{"type":37,"value":111},"Law.",{"type":37,"value":113}," Contract review now takes minutes and costs cents. In a comparison with junior lawyers, language models reviewed contracts for under $0.25 each instead of $74, and matched or exceeded the lawyers' accuracy on the legal issues (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":115,"children":118},{"href":116,"rel":117},"https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.16212",[44],[119],{"type":37,"value":120},"Better Call GPT",{"type":37,"value":122},"). In May 2025, the Solicitors Regulation Authority authorised Garfield.Law, the first purely AI-based law firm in England and Wales. It stressed that using AI does not remove the solicitors' professional accountability (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":124,"children":127},{"href":125,"rel":126},"https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/news/press/garfield-ai-authorised/",[44],[128],{"type":37,"value":129},"SRA",{"type":37,"value":49},{"type":32,"tag":103,"props":132,"children":133},{},[134,139],{"type":32,"tag":107,"props":135,"children":136},{},[137],{"type":37,"value":138},"Tax and accounting.",{"type":37,"value":140}," Tax advice is worth less once a client can establish the position before the consultation. The rules an adviser applies, from double taxation treaties to the OECD guidelines, are written and published. In our own work, AI has resolved questions on both that would previously have needed a specialist.",{"type":32,"tag":103,"props":142,"children":143},{},[144,149,151,157,159,165],{"type":32,"tag":107,"props":145,"children":146},{},[147],{"type":37,"value":148},"Medicine.",{"type":37,"value":150}," AI diagnoses complex cases more accurately than generalist physicians. In a study published in ",{"type":32,"tag":152,"props":153,"children":154},"em",{},[155],{"type":37,"value":156},"Science",{"type":37,"value":158}," in October 2026, Microsoft's diagnostic system was correct in 83.2% of 304 complex cases. Generalist physicians working with reference material were correct in 36.1% (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":160,"children":163},{"href":161,"rel":162},"https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aeh7930",[44],[164],{"type":37,"value":156},{"type":37,"value":49},{"type":32,"tag":103,"props":167,"children":168},{},[169,174],{"type":32,"tag":107,"props":170,"children":171},{},[172],{"type":37,"value":173},"Pharmacy.",{"type":37,"value":175}," The pharmacist's role is becoming verification and responsibility. What a pharmacist checks, from interactions to doses adjusted for a patient's age, weight and kidney function, is set out in published references such as the British National Formulary. A model can now consider a patient's full medication list and history together.",{"type":32,"tag":103,"props":177,"children":178},{},[179,184,186,193],{"type":32,"tag":107,"props":180,"children":181},{},[182],{"type":37,"value":183},"Radiology.",{"type":37,"value":185}," AI increasingly reads the images first, and the radiologist reviews what it has found. In Sweden's MASAI trial of 105,915 women, AI-supported breast screening found 29% more cancers than standard reading by two radiologists, without a significant rise in false positives. It also cut the radiologists' screen-reading workload by 44% (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":187,"children":190},{"href":188,"rel":189},"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39904652/",[44],[191],{"type":37,"value":192},"The Lancet Digital Health",{"type":37,"value":194},"). The radiologist remains responsible for the result because patients and regulators do not yet trust AI to decide alone.",{"type":32,"tag":103,"props":196,"children":197},{},[198,203,205,212],{"type":32,"tag":107,"props":199,"children":200},{},[201],{"type":37,"value":202},"Software engineering.",{"type":37,"value":204}," In our experience, AI writes code better than most engineers. At Google, 75% of all new code is generated by AI and approved by engineers (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":206,"children":209},{"href":207,"rel":208},"https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/infrastructure-and-cloud/google-cloud/cloud-next-2026-sundar-pichai/",[44],[210],{"type":37,"value":211},"Google, April 2026",{"type":37,"value":49},{"type":32,"tag":103,"props":214,"children":215},{},[216,221,223,230],{"type":32,"tag":107,"props":217,"children":218},{},[219],{"type":37,"value":220},"Security.",{"type":37,"value":222}," The PHP2Shell vulnerabilities disclosed on 21 October 2026 are two critical flaws in the programming language used by most websites. They were found with the help of AI models (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":224,"children":227},{"href":225,"rel":226},"https://www.wiz.io/blog/php2shell-php-rce",[44],[228],{"type":37,"value":229},"Wiz Research",{"type":37,"value":231},"), which can test far more of a system than any team of engineers.",{"type":32,"tag":33,"props":233,"children":234},{},[235],{"type":37,"value":236},"Clients will keep their advisers but pay for less of their time. The knowledge that made an employee hard to replace, let an adviser set the price and gave brokers and agents much of their role is no longer scarce.",{"type":32,"tag":238,"props":239,"children":240},"hr",{},[],{"type":32,"tag":51,"props":242,"children":244},{"id":243},"competition-without-barriers",[245],{"type":37,"value":246},"Competition without barriers",{"type":32,"tag":33,"props":248,"children":249},{},[250],{"type":37,"value":251},"A company that spent a year developing a new product in private could once launch with a lead of a year or more. A competitor needed the knowledge to design it, the people to build it, the money to pay them and the time to do the work. Knowledge, as the professions above show, is now supplied by AI. The other three are far easier to obtain than they were.",{"type":32,"tag":99,"props":253,"children":254},{},[255,282,300],{"type":32,"tag":103,"props":256,"children":257},{},[258,263,265,272,274,281],{"type":32,"tag":107,"props":259,"children":260},{},[261],{"type":37,"value":262},"People.",{"type":37,"value":264}," In July 2022, at the height of the competition for engineers, US job postings for software developers were 96.4% above their pre-pandemic level. By June 2026 they were 27.5% below it (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":266,"children":269},{"href":267,"rel":268},"https://hiringlab.indeed.com/2026/07/08/ai-and-job-postings-from-destruction-to-creation/",[44],[270],{"type":37,"value":271},"Indeed Hiring Lab",{"type":37,"value":273},"). The fall began when interest rates rose, but a product no longer needs the team it once did. In June 2025, Wix agreed to pay $80 million for Base44, an app-building platform founded the previous year. Base44 had raised no outside money and hired its first six employees only the month before (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":275,"children":278},{"href":276,"rel":277},"https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-wix-acquires-israeli-vibe-coding-co-base44-1001513267",[44],[279],{"type":37,"value":280},"Globes",{"type":37,"value":49},{"type":32,"tag":103,"props":283,"children":284},{},[285,290,292,299],{"type":32,"tag":107,"props":286,"children":287},{},[288],{"type":37,"value":289},"Money.",{"type":37,"value":291}," In March 2025, the chief executive of Y Combinator said that some of its startups were generating as much as $10 million in revenue with fewer than ten people (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":293,"children":296},{"href":294,"rel":295},"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/y-combinator-startups-are-fastest-growing-most-profitable-in-fund-history-because-of-ai/6188199/",[44],[297],{"type":37,"value":298},"CNBC",{"type":37,"value":49},{"type":32,"tag":103,"props":301,"children":302},{},[303,308,310,315],{"type":32,"tag":107,"props":304,"children":305},{},[306],{"type":37,"value":307},"Time.",{"type":37,"value":309}," At Google, a complex code migration carried out by agents and engineers together was completed six times faster than was possible a year earlier with engineers alone (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":311,"children":313},{"href":207,"rel":312},[44],[314],{"type":37,"value":211},{"type":37,"value":49},{"type":32,"tag":33,"props":317,"children":318},{},[319,321,328,330,337,339,346],{"type":37,"value":320},"Photoshop and AutoCAD kept their lead for decades because copying them took exactly these four things. While competitors spent years catching up, Adobe and Autodesk kept building on what they already had. GIMP, a free image editor, has been developed since its first release in 1996 (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":322,"children":325},{"href":323,"rel":324},"https://www.gimp.org/about/ancient_history.html",[44],[326],{"type":37,"value":327},"GIMP",{"type":37,"value":329},"). BricsCAD, which Bricsys has developed since 2002, works in AutoCAD's own DWG file format (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":331,"children":334},{"href":332,"rel":333},"https://www.digitalengineering247.com/article/hexagon-acquires-bricsys",[44],[335],{"type":37,"value":336},"Digital Engineering",{"type":37,"value":338},"), yet neither has caught up. Now that all four cost far less, many more teams can build a credible alternative, and we do not expect leads of that kind to last. Investors are already acting on this. By June 2026, Adobe's shares had fallen more than 37% that year, on concern about AI design tools that could disrupt the industry (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":340,"children":343},{"href":341,"rel":342},"https://whbl.com/2026/06/11/adobe-cfo-exit-fans-strategy-worries-despite-outlook-raise/",[44],[344],{"type":37,"value":345},"Reuters",{"type":37,"value":49},{"type":32,"tag":51,"props":348,"children":350},{"id":349},"why-ai-helps-the-copier-more-than-the-leader",[351],{"type":37,"value":352},"Why AI helps the copier more than the leader",{"type":32,"tag":33,"props":354,"children":355},{},[356],{"type":37,"value":357},"The usual response is that an established business can use AI too and keep its lead. It can, but the lead it keeps is now short. A product takes a year of work to meet its customers' needs, and every feature after that takes research and decisions about what to build. A competitor copying the result skips all of that. The lead this work earns has already shrunk to a few months and is likely to shrink to weeks or days.",{"type":32,"tag":51,"props":359,"children":361},{"id":360},"what-makes-a-lead-last",[362],{"type":37,"value":363},"What makes a lead last",{"type":32,"tag":33,"props":365,"children":366},{},[367,369,376],{"type":37,"value":368},"The Bloomberg Terminal is the clearest example of software backed by something competitors cannot obtain. LSEG, FactSet and others offer comparable terminals. What they cannot easily copy is the market data Bloomberg gathers through relationships built over decades. Nor can they copy the news and research produced by its own analysts and its more than 2,700 journalists in more than 100 bureaus (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":370,"children":373},{"href":371,"rel":372},"https://www.bloomberg.com/company/what-we-do/news-media/",[44],[374],{"type":37,"value":375},"Bloomberg",{"type":37,"value":377},"), or the messaging network its users rely on to reach one another. Much of that information is worth most at the moment it is published. A competitor that reproduces the software, with or without AI, still cannot offer it in time.",{"type":32,"tag":51,"props":379,"children":381},{"id":380},"what-this-means-for-strategy",[382],{"type":37,"value":383},"What this means for strategy",{"type":32,"tag":33,"props":385,"children":386},{},[387],{"type":37,"value":388},"The leverage professionals and businesses hold today has already weakened, but it is still worth using. Until it is clear where this technology leads, they should assume it will weaken further. That means acquiring new leverage at all times: moving faster than before, changing direction as often as needed, and revisiting every few months the plans that once looked five or ten years ahead.",{"type":32,"tag":33,"props":390,"children":391},{},[392,394,401],{"type":37,"value":393},"A professional now competes with AI itself and with others who use it. A business competes with rivals that use the same models it does. W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne call a market where every competitor fights over the same customers a red ocean. A market a business creates for itself, where competition is not yet relevant, they call a blue ocean (",{"type":32,"tag":40,"props":395,"children":398},{"href":396,"rel":397},"https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/what-is-blue-ocean-strategy/",[44],[399],{"type":37,"value":400},"Blue Ocean Strategy",{"type":37,"value":402},"). A profession or business that stops acquiring new leverage will find itself in a red ocean that AI is making more crowded than ever. 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