Is AI really changing the rules of competition?

Artificial intelligence is a technological revolution whose economic implications we are only just beginning to grasp. For Marc-André Kamel, Managing Partner for France at Bain & Company, it is, above all, a competitive revolution. More than just a transformation of businesses, AI is redefining the boundaries of competition and could lead to the emergence of competitors where we least expect them.

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Is AI really changing the rules of competition?

Marc-André Kamel. Yes. For a long time, companies have built their strategies by observing their traditional competitors. However, AI is transforming value chains and giving rise to new players capable of capturing a share of the customer relationship or value creation. In many sectors, the question is no longer just: ‘How should we use AI?’, but also: ‘Who will our competitors be in the future?’

Why is AI challenging the traditional boundaries between industries?

M.-A. K. Because it acts simultaneously on several levers of competitiveness: productivity, innovation, and growth. It allows some players to quickly gain market share or enter new markets. Some barriers to entry are weakening, while big players keep advantages related to their data and investment capacity. The result: competition can now come from players who historically didn’t belong to the same sector.

Is agentic AI speeding up this competitive reshuffling?

M.-A. K. Yes, because it directly affects the customer relationship. It allows for more personalized offers and user experiences, but it also brings up new intermediaries who can guide or make decisions on behalf of users. In this context, having access to the customer becomes a major strategic challenge again. Those who control the interfaces or recommendations will be able to capture an increasing share of the value created.

In this new environment, where is the competitive advantage being built?

M.-A. K. For a long time, companies set themselves apart by their assets, size, infrastructure, or networks. These things are still important, but they’re no longer enough. The speed of transformation is becoming a major factor in standing out.

Companies that can quickly integrate AI at scale into their operations, business, and processes will create a hard-to-catch advantage. The gap is widening between those that are transforming their operating model and those that are progressing more gradually.

Why are so many companies still struggling to follow through despite the potential of AI?

M.-A. K. Because we need to move beyond being trapped by use cases. Most big companies have already spotted plenty of AI opportunities. The challenge isn’t experimenting anymore; it’s about transforming functions, jobs, and sometimes entire parts of the business to create large-scale value. The main hurdle isn’t technology anymore; it’s organizational.

Will the next competitive battle be played more in the organization than in technology?

M.-A. K. More and more. All companies will have access to the same AI models. However, they won’t have the same ability to deploy them and use them to create value.

In the long run, the difference will be less about access to technologies and more about the ability to integrate them into processes, deploy them on a large scale, and get teams on board with transforming the company.

What should we take away from this new phase of competition?

M.-A. K. We often talk about AI as a tech topic. In reality, it’s primarily a business topic that challenges traditional competitive advantages and can potentially shake up the competitive landscape.

It’s a race, and the race has already started.