What will be AI proof? (My viral post from Twitter)

Short Notes at the intersection of AI and Content

Note: I posted this spur-of-the-moment thought on Twitter, and it blew up by Twitter standards—11k impressions, 63 bookmarks, and 15 reposts. Sharing below a slightly cleaned-up version of it.

So, what will be AI-proof?

Yesterday my colleague Sajith Pai and I were exchanging notes in our common content group. I'd shared the link to an agency that does kickass designs and we were mulling over the question - is it AI-proof?

I think the simplest way to decide if something is going to be AI-proof is: "If it can be converted into 0s and 1s, then it is not AI-proof. It's only a matter of time horizon."

So then, what will be AI-proof?

I believe by the end of 2025, we will all come to the realization that only 5 things are AI-proof for businesses, and these will provide them different types of advantages.

💡Brand: Strong brands will remain standing in the post-AI world. Brand gives businesses economies of scale advantage in marketing, manufacturing and talent. How to check if you have a brand? Strong brands give you pricing power. Simple test: if you increase price, do customers churn or stick around?

🫂 Community: AI cannot replace the Harley Owner's group or your family WA group with good morning and happy birthday messages. Community gets you 'distribution advantage' for your products, over those businesses that don’t have communities.

🤝 Relationships: The much-hated very-Indian question 'Tu janta hai mera baap kaun hai?' (Do you know who my father is—used as a way to show-off elite status in parts of India), is going to be more true than ever in the post-AI world. Relationships give you a social graph which gives you ‘access advantage’—access to decision-makers, access to influencers, and access to special knowledge.

Two more that AI can't easily replicate (yet):

👀 Taste: This may not last forever, but while it lasts, having better taste lets you craft better things-better products, better UX, better content, etc. which has a strong compounding effect if you can do it over a period of time.

🏇 Speed: As Amjad Masad, founder of Replit, said in a podcast, in the future the winner will be the person who can generate more good ideas faster than others. Speed of thinking and execution will get you an advantage over other businesses, getting you a window perhaps big enough to get that marquee customer, the next fundraise, or a regulatory intervention.

So, if you are still making the AOP for FY2025, brand, community, and relationships should be your top priorities.

What do you think will be AI-proof at the end of 2025? And what am I missing?

Rohit