Greg Twemlow's article posits that traditional competitive advantages are easily replicated in the age of artificial intelligence. He argues that true defensibility now stems from actively involving users in a product's ongoing development, moving from a build-it-and-they-will-come approach to a collaborative "co-design" model. This cultivates deep user loyalty, which Twemlow suggests is the ultimate and most resilient competitive "moat". Furthermore, the author proposes formalising this collaboration through "Co-Design DAOs" that reward user contributions with tokens, potentially sharing in the product's financial success and creating a powerful co-creation ecosystem. Twemlow contends that this shift recognises user loyalty as a byproduct and a crucial asset that drives growth and resists competition, ultimately advocating for a return to trust through shared creation. Read the Article on Medium.
About the Author - Greg Twemlow writes and teaches at the intersection of technology, education, and human judgment. He works with educators and businesses to make AI explainable and assessable in classrooms and boardrooms — to ensure AI users show their process and own their decisions. His cognition protocol, the Context & Critique Rule™, is built on a three-step process: Evidence → Cognition → Discernment — a bridge from what’s scattered to what’s chosen. Context & Critique → Accountable AI™. © 2025 Greg Twemlow. “Context & Critique → Accountable AI” and “Context & Critique Rule” are unregistered trademarks (™).
