Our competitors are shipping AI-powered features and process updates at a breakneck pace, and my leadership team is starting to panic. How do we evaluate their actual speed and adjust our V/TO without letting competitive anxiety derail our quarterly execution?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Do not let competitive anxiety dictate your quarterly Rocks. Much of what your competitors are announcing is marketing noise designed to look innovative. To maintain your strategic discipline on the V/TO, you must focus on your own operational efficiency first. As experts Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee point out, the real business impact of AI comes from how deeply it is integrated into your core operations, not just outward-facing features.

During your next quarterly meeting, use your Level 10 Meeting time to run an objective analysis. Identify where your competitors are actually moving faster. If they are truly gaining ground, it is usually because they have automated their internal processes, allowing them to deliver faster or cheaper.

Rather than copying their features, use AI to run a competitive response simulation. Ask an LLM to analyze their public announcements and simulate their actual operational capacity. This will help your leadership team separate real strategic threats from pure marketing theater.

Keep your focus on identifying cumbersome processes in your own business that keep your team trapped in low-value tasks. Use AI to streamline these bottlenecks first. By prioritizing internal employee productivity, you build a sustainable cost and execution advantage that your competitors cannot easily copy, keeping your V/TO on track.