A little faster is a market advantage.

A step change in speed changes the market entirely.

Fedex was faster mail. It allowed them to grow and profit.

Email, on the other hand, completely changed communication.

In the discussions of AI, most people are failing to consider the step change in speed. A logo made in Kittl might not be as magical as one made by Milton Glaser, but it can be created 1,000 times faster. That means that the number of polished graphics being created will grow exponentially.

When an AI can give you a pretty good diagnosis in real time, it changes the way you deal with the medical system.

Just as email isn’t as humane or thoughtful or memorable as a hand-written letter, these faster alternatives aren’t better… they’re simply different. And, as the market often does, it prizes conveniences and speed.

And so, good, fast and inexpensive is now possible.

This opens the door to two opportunities:

We can start building real-time insights into more and more components of our daily life.

We can start doing human-constructed creative work that’s worth waiting for. Great, not good.

Once again, it’s the mediocre middle that’s going to be devalued.