AI can't replace your experience

Anthropic published a 36-page playbook for building a business with AI. I read it, and its three big points are bang on the money for small business owners, even though it was written for startup founders.

First, building software is now the easy part. The playbook quotes a CB Insights figure: 42 percent of startup failures come down to building something nobody wanted. Knowing what to build is the hard part, and no model fixes that.

Second, you no longer need a technical co-founder. Anthropic's own claim is that someone who has never written code can now ship working software by describing it to Claude in plain English. The tool you've always wished existed for your trade is buildable.

Third, AI can't come up with the idea. It's brilliant at execution and useless at knowing what your customers actually need. The playbook calls that knowledge the moat: the jargon and the edge cases a general model can't capture.

You already own that moat. You've spent years listening to what your customers complain about, in a business Silicon Valley would probably look down on. The playbook's argument is that the more niche your patch, the stronger your position.

Tonight, write down the one job in your business you wish software did. Then describe it to Claude and see how far you get.