How AI Is Making Companies More Alike—and Why Authenticity Is Your Only Edge

Large language models have quietly become the backbone of business strategy. More executives rely on these AI systems as their go-to advisers and thought partners. But as we've witnessed in language and entertainment, this dependence can shrink the diversity of ideas we access.

Social media offers an early warning. Anyone active on LinkedIn notices how posts from different people often echo the same ideas and phrasing. While this might seem like an effect of social media algorithms, the pattern goes deeper. Sales pitches start sounding alike, marketing copy grows generic, and if unchecked, internal documents, analyses, and strategies risk blending together. Over time, company cultures themselves could lose their distinct flavor.

Smarter Alone, Narrower Together

Generative AI can boost productivity and creative output. Research shows people working with AI outperform those working solo in creativity. But there’s a catch: while AI lifts individual creativity, it shrinks the collective diversity of ideas. Groups end up exploring a narrower band of options. This means AI’s promise of breakthrough innovation might actually limit the range of what’s possible.

Competitive Convergence

Nearly two decades ago, the concept of “competitive convergence” was introduced to describe how companies start to look and act alike. They chase the same customers, adopt similar strategies, and mirror operational processes. This leads to a race to the middle, erasing distinction and squeezing profits.

With AI, this convergence speeds up. A “Great AI Convergence” is looming, where strategic plans, operational playbooks, and culture resemble one another more than ever. AI can boost efficiency, but it can’t replicate the unique human elements that define a company—its stories, lessons, beliefs, and quirks. When AI shapes strategy and messaging, those unique touches risk disappearing, leaving companies less authentic and less differentiated.

The Three Pillars of Business Homogenization

1. Strategic Convergence: When Every Plan Looks the Same

If your competitor uses Claude for market analysis and you use ChatGPT, the result isn’t radical uniformity but a subtle drift toward similar strategic options. What seems like independent choice often recycles the same patterns and playbooks. Over time, strategies lose their edge and individuality.

2. Operational Convergence: The Automation of Averageness

Companies like Shopify and Duolingo require employees to start tasks with AI, chasing efficiency gains. This makes sense, but when many firms use the same AI tools, operations begin to look alike. Customer service bots, for example, may settle on the same optimal interaction scripts. This boosts efficiency but risks erasing what makes your customer experience special.

Leaders should consider sacrificing a bit of speed for authenticity—like chatbots that reflect your company’s personality rather than generic responses.

3. Cultural Convergence: When Companies Lose Their Souls

When AI drafts company communications and shapes value statements, it imports the average corporate culture from its training data. Unique language, quirks, and ways of thinking get smoothed out. The impact? Brand perception dims and employee engagement suffers. When your company voice becomes generic, people feel less connected.

From Artificial Intelligence to Authentic Intelligence

If AI drives sameness, your advantage lies in protecting and amplifying what makes you different. Here’s how to start:

• Audit your uniqueness: Identify the knowledge, stories, and perspectives your company owns that AI can’t access.
• Create proprietary datasets: Feed AI your unique data—customer insights, field notes, experiments, and failures—instead of the generic info everyone uses.
• Establish “AI-free zones”: Protect spaces where human judgment and experience matter most—strategy meetings, cultural rituals, customer interactions.
• Adversarial prompting: Challenge AI by asking for contrarian views, blind spots, or uncomfortable perspectives.

Authentic Intelligence

When every company has access to the same AI tools, the true edge is what AI can’t replicate. That edge is authentic intelligence—the messy, human insights shaped by experience and identity. AI is the baseline. Authenticity is how you win.