— Opinion column by manufacturing expert Buckley Brinkman
Harry Chapin remains one of my favorite artists. His song “Circle” describes life as a series of returning patterns:
All my life’s a circle
Sunrise and sundown
The moon rolls through the nighttime
’Til the daybreak comes around
All my life’s a circle
But I can’t tell you why
The seasons spinning ‘round again
The years keep rolling by
Chapin’s fans always closed every concert singing that chorus together — a fitting way to end the night.
“Circle” kept playing in my head as I thought about AI and how it will reshape our lives. Much of this feels new, but old patterns are already resurfacing.
The Circle Comes Around Again
AI will make a real difference for the companies and people who lean into it and take advantage of the speed and productivity gains it offers. AI already touches — or will soon touch — nearly every corner of our lives, often in ways we can’t yet predict.
But here’s the catch: AI won’t hand anyone a lasting competitive advantage once everyone uses it to boost performance. The real challenge is finding the moves that set us apart even after the technology becomes table stakes. Could the human factor still decide who wins?
The 10 Percent Actually Matters
Thirty-plus years ago, as a young general manager, I listened to a major manufacturer’s COO describe the technology transformation underway in his plants. His company justified the investment through cost savings and production-line improvements–expecting 90 percent of the gains to come from the technology and only 10 percent from the people running it. Sound familiar?
Then he added one line I never forgot: “But if I don’t get the 10 percent from my people, I’ll never get the other 90 percent.” That warning matters even more today.
Why AI Won’t Be Your Moat
Technology investments used to create real separation between companies precisely because they cost so much and took so long to implement. That expense and complexity slowed everyone down — but it also meant competitors couldn’t easily copy a good idea. We got comfortable moving carefully, because mistakes were expensive and copycats needed time to catch up.
AI breaks that pattern. It costs next to nothing to deploy and demands only a modicum of technical skill. Teams can roll out effective changes quickly and repeatedly. The only real limits are imagination and exposure to what others have already tried. AI alone can’t sustain a competitive edge for long, because the barriers are so low and the underlying models keep converging. Competitors can copy your move by next quarter.
A Fast Way to Become Average
AI moves quickly, but it often misses nuance, and its predictive nature pulls answers toward the mean. That makes it a remarkably efficient way to become average – fast. For half of us, that upgrade is worth something.
Still, average won’t separate you from the pack. Real differentiation means applying AI to the right problems, adding the creativity and insight that create genuine value for customers, and building the relationships that anchor a business over time.
Where People Come In
That’s the opening for people. Judgment — knowing where and how to deploy AI — still belongs to humans. So does the insight into what customers actually need and how our operations can meet it. And so does trust – the connections that turn a transaction into a relationship, and a relationship into a business that grows.
AI will transform our world. People will still be the ones who make it happen. Try something. This week, pick one AI-assisted process in your organization and ask a hard question — where exactly does human judgment show up? If it’s not clear, you’ve found the first place to invest – not in more AI – but in the people who will make it worth using.
I can still hear Chapin’s chorus coming back around for the thousandth time — “the seasons spinning ‘round again, the years keep rolling by.” The technology changes. What separates the winners doesn’t.
