ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Your proposal is open on a buyer's screen right now, with two competitors' proposals beside it, and all three are being pasted into ChatGPT for a verdict. That is how AI is commoditising cybersecurity businesses, and you will never see it happen.
When three proposals carry the same credentials and the same promises, the model compares the one thing it can compare, which is the price. The buyer follows.
In this episode I go through what that reclassification does to your pipeline, why the freelance writers who got hit hardest were the best ones, and the single test I run with every founder to find the one thing a competitor cannot copy.
In this episode:
Why buyers can no longer tell the difference between your work and an AI version of it, and what that does to your rate
What commoditisation looks like in your pipeline before you have a name for it, from second rounds you did not expect to buyers comparing you to tools
What the Washington University and NYU study of 92,547 freelance writers says about whether being excellent protects your pricing
Why moving up the value chain to AI governance stops working the moment the whole market does the same thing
The Copy Test, one question that separates a real position from a polished version of what everyone else is saying
Resources:
Find Your Zag, the free 10 minute positioning tool with a 90 day action plan at the end of it: https://www.deirdremartin.ie/findyourzag
Washington University and NYU study on AI and freelance writing work: https://olin.washu.edu/about/news-and-media/news/2023/08/study-ai-tools-cause-a-decline-in-freelance-work-and-incomeat-least-in-the-short-run.php
Forrester, The State Of Business Buying, 2026: https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-2026-the-state-of-business-buying/
Zag by Marty Neumeier, and Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout
If you cannot tell whether your positioning gives a buyer's AI anything specific to say about you, go and find out for certain. Find Your Zag takes about 10 minutes and it is free: https://www.deirdremartin.ie/findyourzag
