Which business moats will still matter in the age of AI?
The best moats usually come from something genuinely hard to replicate: a unique product, valuable intellectual property, scarce assets, scale or some other lasting competitive advantage.
Key points
- Agentic AI is still young, and there are major questions around security, trust and how much authority consumers will actually hand over to software.
- Friction can protect a business, whether that friction exists for good reasons or not.
- Insurance marketplace Insurify has also launched an AI Agent Gateway that allows agents to gather and compare real-time quotes while preserving details such as deductibles, limits and disclosures.
But the underlying question is worth considering now: Would a company’s advantage still exist if every customer had a tireless personal assistant constantly looking for a better deal?
A strong moat can protect market share, support pricing power and help a business earn attractive returns for years, even as competitors try to take those profits away.
Additional details
- Charles Schwab fell more than 6%, insurer Allstate dropped 5.5%, Planet Fitness fell as much as 11%, and travel companies including Expedia and Booking Holdings also came under pressure.
- Kin Insurance recently said it would welcome AI shopping agents rather than block them and has since built tools designed to make it easier for agents to obtain home insurance quotes.
- In theory, it could regularly compare savings rates, credit card rewards or brokerage products and tell its owner when there is a better alternative.
- Schwab CEO Rick Wurster recently said the company is blocking unauthorized outside AI agents attempting to access customer accounts or move money.
- Moving accounts can mean comparing alternatives, filling out forms, changing direct deposits and reconnecting automatic payments.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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