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Send a text🎙 AI: Commodity or Differentiator? | The Value Flywheel in 2026AI has taken a step change. Over the past few months, adoption has accelerated dramatically — but are organisations applying it with clarity, or just chasing hype?In this episode of The Serverless Edge, we unpack:AI as a commodity vs differentiatorWhy clarity of purpose matters more than everThe risks of “vibe coding” critical systemsSecurity, blast radius, and agent containmentAccelerating your Value Flywheel safely with AIWhy you cannot outsource critical thinking to an LLMIf you're a CTO, architect, or engineering leader trying to navigate AI adoption without introducing systemic risk — this conversation is for you.⏱ Chapter Markers00:00 – The AI Step Change: What Happened in Late 2025?02:00 – AI as Commodity vs Differentiator03:10 – The Cost of Building What’s Already a Commodity04:20 – Internal Acceleration vs Product Features05:30 – Training Data, Sovereignty & Enterprise Risk06:45 – Where AI Becomes Dangerous in Your Organisation08:00 – Agentic AI & Blast Radius: Why Containment Matters09:20 – Competing With the Platform Providers11:10 – SaaS Killed by AI? The AWS Reinvent Effect13:00 – “Vibe Coding” Core Business Systems (And Why That’s Madness)15:00 – Where You Shouldn’t Experiment With AI16:00 – Faster Feedback Loops & Engineering Throughput17:30 – Discipline, Metrics & the North Star18:20 – Using AI to Improve Your Own Thinking19:00 – Context Is Everything (And Harder Than You Think)20:10 – Organisational Design for Humans and Agents21:00 – Turning the Flywheel Before Adding AI21:50 – Why Sitting on the Sidelines Isn’t an Option🔎 Key Themes1. Clarity Before CapabilityMost organisations should consume AI, not build foundational models. The differentiator is rarely the LLM itself — it’s how clearly you understand:Your user needsYour value chainYour supply chain dependenciesYour regulatory boundariesWithout that clarity, AI simply accelerates confusion.2. Blast Radius & ContainmentAgentic systems introduce a new risk profile.If you deploy AI into:Poorly governed SDLC environmentsWeakly defined security domainsLegacy operational processesYou expand blast radius unintentionally.Think SaaS isolation. Think sandboxing. Think containment by design.3. Speed Changes EverythingIf AI compresses delivery cycles from weeks to hours:Your product discovery loop must accelerateDecision-making must tightenMetrics must be explicitEngineering must sit inside the feedback loopAI increases velocity — but velocity without direction is chaos.4. You Cannot Outsource Critical ThinkingAI can help:Refine your North StarImprove impact mappingSharpen KPIsDraft Wardley MapsAnalyse value chainsBut it cannot replace:ContextJudgementOrganisational alignmentStrategic trade-offsYou still need to do the hard yards.📚 Related Concepts & ResourcesThe Value Flywheel EffectWardley MappingNorth Star FrameworkImpact MappingSDLC AccelerationAgentic AI ArchitectureServerless Craic from The Serverless EdgeCheck out our book The Value Flywheel Effect Follow us on X @ServerlessEdgeFollow us on LinkedIn Subscribe on YouTube