Listening to Mark Cuban recently on AI, and the path it’s on, it struck me how much of this we have seen before.
In the 1980s and 1990s, most businesses did not adopt computing because they had a clear vision of where it would take them. They adopted it because they could not afford to be left behind. The businesses that moved early got an edge. The businesses that waited too long paid for it.
We are watching the same thing happen with AI right now.
When computing first arrived in business, it followed a predictable pattern. Stage one: a tool inside the business. It automated manual work, made operations faster, and gave companies that used it well a genuine competitive advantage.
Then came stage two. Computing stopped being just an internal tool and became a route to market. Businesses were no longer just using technology to run more efficiently. They were building it into their products, their services, and the way they connected with customers. The technology became part of what they sold.
That shift changed everything. The companies that understood it early did not just get more efficient. They built entirely new categories, new revenue streams, and new relationships with their customers.
AI is following the exact same path.
Right now, most businesses are in stage one. They are using AI to write faster, summarise meetings, generate first drafts, and automate repetitive internal tasks. That is genuinely useful. But it is also what every other business in their sector is doing.
Stage one AI gives you efficiency. It does not give you a competitive edge, because everyone has access to the same tools.
The companies that will define the next decade are already thinking about stage two. They are asking not just how AI can help them work faster, but how AI becomes part of what they sell, how they serve customers, and how they compete.
And critically, how customers find them.
This last point matters more than most businesses realise. AI platforms are already changing the way buyers discover products and services. When someone asks an AI assistant for a recommendation, the answer it gives is not based on who has the best website or the cleverest advertising. It is based on structured, verified data. Businesses that show up in those recommendations are not necessarily the best ones. They are the ones whose evidence is organised in a way the AI can actually read and trust.
Stage two means your business is not just using AI. It means your business is visible to AI, in a way that puts you in front of the customers who need you.
The question is not whether AI will transform your business and your industry. It will.
The question is whether you are going to be the one doing the transforming, or the one being transformed.
Most businesses are at stage one. A few are already building for stage two. The gap between them is widening faster than most people expect.
Where is your business on this path?
If you want to understand how visible your business is to AI-driven discovery, and where your authority actually stands in your market, the Market Authority Index is a good place to start. It measures where you are, so you can see clearly what needs to change.