Artificial intelligence is all the talk – and why not? We live in the future. Humanoid robot games, capacious gene editing, and the long-awaited arrival of self-driving cars – developments aided by the rise of AI – these are the headlines that dominate our news and social media feeds.

The results are impressive, not only in the realm of technology advancement, but also in productivity gains for businesses across sectors. Randomized workplace studies have found productivity gains of 14% among customer-service workers and 26% among software developers, with particularly large gains among less-experienced workers, for those who implemented the most up-to-date artificial intelligence tools.

Unlike previous technological advancements, there may be reason to think that the financial boon of such productivity gains will not be concentrated among industries’ largest corporations. Large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are widely available, relatively inexpensive, and do not require significant capital investment. Such products enable small firms to perform tasks that may otherwise require specialized workers or outsourcing, allowing them to compete on a more level playing field with larger firms. While in their early stages artificial intelligence tools were prone to mistakes, quality is improving, and at a rapid pace. It’s conceivable that AI may reduce marginal differences in technical competence among firms to zero – and, if not to zero, then at least so far as to make them indistinguishable in the eye of the consumer.

Such advancements can cause heartburn in the leaders of professional services firms. Those who have earned a degree or other credentials worry that AI may replace the demand for specialized knowledge and eliminate the value of such credentialing. Short of Elon Musk’s vision of a world without work and without money, how flat will the world become, and what can we expect will distinguish firms, if anything, in that world?

 Professional service providers should look to industries whose fields may already be level. Consider, for example, your local barber. How did you make the choice to use his services? It’s not likely to be because of superior quality – his razor is as sharp as anyone’s, and his skills, while certainly beyond your capacity, don’t stand out as noticeably superior to the barber down the street. But, he is a good conversationalist. He remembers your kids’ names. He likes the Bengals. He is likable, dependable, cost-effective, and trustworthy.

This is the opportunity for small professional service firms in the world of AI. As artificial intelligence eliminates differences in quality of services, it magnifies differences in the human beings who provide them. Dependability, responsiveness, trustworthiness, likability, and shared values with customers – these are the qualities that will distinguish successful firms in the flat world ahead.

A modest caution to temper this hopeful idea: As artificial intelligence has allowed human beings to have more leisure than ever before, research shows that technology is making it increasingly difficult to enjoy that leisure. In a similar way, as artificial intelligence levels the playing field for small businesses, encouraging customers to demand from genuine people, AI is making it increasingly difficult to develop and keep the characteristics of a genuine person. The right question for a business owner: How can we incorporate artificial intelligence into our business without depriving our people of the human qualities so important to our customers and our world?