Forget Your Moat. Who Gets Their Brain Back?

Simplicity. Power. Immediacy. Results.

Before 11AM today, I met with three AI founders. I gave them all the same advice:

Forget about your moat.
Focus on speed and customer value.
Make your product immediately accretive.

Here’s why.

The Hidden Crisis in Enterprise Productivity

Rachel Baruch, a principal investor and sharp observer of both consumer and enterprise tech, recently said something that stopped me in my tracks.

Despite the explosion of AI tools over the past 60–90 days, something paradoxical is happening: as model providers and infrastructure players release new features, startups reflexively add more complexity to their products.

But they’re missing the point entirely.

The core business premise of AI can be distilled into five words:

GIVE ME MY BRAIN BACK.

The Data Tells a Stark Story

Look at what’s happening inside enterprise companies today. Revenue per employee has nearly doubled across the board in the past 10 years.

This didn’t happen magically. It isn’t an isolated outcome.
This is the goal.

More revenue. More profits.
And that means one thing: continued and transformative automation and efficiency of people.

Said simply: do more with less.

So what does this mean for those buying enterprise technology?

Employees are doing dramatically more work with fewer resources. They’re managing more responsibilities, juggling more systems and carrying a heavier cognitive load than ever before.

The promise of technology was to make our lives easier.
Instead, we’re drowning in complexity.

The AI Products That Will Win

In the past 3–5 years, the startup world has been obsessed with moats and technical differentiation.

But when you actually talk to enterprise buyers of AI software, they’re not paying premiums for complexity.

They’re paying for cognitive freedom.

The next generation of winning AI products will share four key traits:

1. Cross-System Orchestration
   They don’t just complete tasks—they orchestrate entire workflows across multiple, disparate systems of record.
   
   
2. Immediate Value
   They’re accretive from day one.
   No six-month implementation. No extensive training.
   Value on day one.
   
   
3. Human-Centered Delivery
   They’re built and sold by teams who understand the human side of change—not just the technical specs.
   
   
4. Trust Through Intelligence
   These products grow smarter over time, earning trust by consistently delivering results that matter.
   
   

The Bottom Line

When building your B2B AI product, ask yourself one question:

Who gets their brain back?

If your answer involves explaining your architecture, proprietary models or moat…
You’re solving the wrong problem.

The enterprises writing big checks for AI aren’t buying technology.

They’re buying time.
Clarity.
And the ability to focus on what matters most.

The winners in this space won’t be the most technically sophisticated.
They’ll be the ones who understand that in a world of infinite complexity, the most valuable innovation is simplicity.