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avaer | on: Domain expertise has always been the real moat
There's a lot of people agreeing and disagreeing with the article, but on what grounds? How do you know "domain expertise" is a "moat"? Vibes? Has there been ongoing, persistent attacks by AI on domain expertise where we can say the moat holds, economically speaking? So far it seems quite the opposite.

So far the evidence seems to be pointing to a different adage, Sutton's Bitter Lesson, which (generalized) says to not bring human expertise to a problem that can be "solved" with unfathomable volumes of data. Because the latter has historically slaughtered the former for decades. But somehow people believe this time it's different?

I will counter there is one thing that is a persistent moat, and it's not domain expertise; it's sales. Convincing other humans to part with their money. Humans have shown they will trust a person/human touch to part with their money more than an AI.

But I'm not convinced today's AI or tomorrow's won't be able to replicate domain expertise in domain X for any X.

binary0010 | parent | next
You think we won't have ai sales agents that are better than humans at selling?

They are already significantly better than humans at persuasion (according to a study from Princeton).

hyperpape | parent | next
> Has there been ongoing, persistent attacks by AI on domain expertise where we can say the moat holds, economically speaking? So far it seems quite the opposite.

What do you mean by this? Most human white collar workers still have their jobs. I can't see the future, but yes, so far, human expertise is doing ok.

We'll see what happens in 2027, and 2028, and...

ikjasdlk2234 | parent
I'm in growth. When I hire in sales roles, I prioritize domain expertise.