The Startup Ideas Podcast
The best businesses are built at the intersection of emerging technology, community, and real human needs.
Evolution from AI Abundance to Human Curation
Timeframe: 2-5 years for basic AI services to commoditize, longer for complex workflows
What's Changing
AI tools are creating an abundance of content and services, but this will eventually lead to oversaturation requiring human taste and curation to differentiate
Driving Forces
AI agents becoming capable of complex multi-step workflows
Democratization of AI tools making them accessible to everyone
Market saturation as everyone adopts similar AI capabilities
Consumer fatigue with low-quality AI-generated content
Winners
- Early adopters who build superior AI workflows before commoditization
- Companies that combine AI efficiency with human creativity and taste
- Platforms that help humans direct and curate AI output effectively
- Businesses that use AI for internal operations rather than customer-facing content
Losers
- Companies relying solely on basic AI content generation
- Traditional service providers who don't adapt to AI efficiency gains
- Businesses that compete only on volume rather than quality
- Late adopters who enter after basic AI services are commoditized
How to Position Yourself
Focus on superior direction and curation of AI output
Develop proprietary data sources or unique perspectives
Build AI critic and quality control systems
Combine AI automation with human creativity and strategy
Create network effects and data moats around AI services
Early Signals to Watch
Example Implementation
“A newsletter that uses AI to research and draft content, but employs human editors to add unique insights, interview sources, and maintain a distinct voice that readers can't get elsewhere.”