Kevin Surace warns companies ignoring AI are making Kodak's mistake. Kodak invented digital cameras but didn't sell them because film profits seemed safer. Now any brand except the most entrenched ones risks collapse when a cheaper, AI-first competitor arrives.
Every company ignoring AI right now is making the exact same mistake that destroyed Kodak. I like to use the Kodak example. I knew a lot of the leaders at Kodak and they saw digital cameras coming and they invented digital cameras, invented them, and then didn't release them. Why? Well, it was really good profit in film and they kept thinking the quality of film and the resolution of film and these digital cameras look like crap at the time, right? So we don't have to worry about that. But little by little, they kept eating market share and within 10 years they ate all the market share and nobody wanted film anymore. And so they completely miscalculated the fact that these little companies making these little digital cameras and eventually phone cameras would eventually get better and better and better and eat their lunch. And that's what happened. Complete miscalculation. They could sort of see it coming, but it just moved so slowly, it wasn't obvious. So don't miscalculate the fact that your brand is worth so much. It isn't. It isn't. I mean, maybe if you're Apple, it is, but consumers are fickle. Businesses are fickle. They will move on. They will move on to the next best thing that is a lower cost. And if someone's got a product out there that's 30% lower than yours. It does everything yours does, but they've got a company that is AI first, and your brand just is worth nothing.
