I've been musing a lot recently about how you build and protect a 'moat' in the age of AI development. In tech lingo, 'moat' is the metaphor given to how you build a business that is hard to compete with, and that retains customers easily.
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A good 'moat' is hard to overcome - for the user / customers, leaving your platform should require a painful process. They either loose something (function or feature), or it requires a big investment of time.
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For many EdTech companies, that defensible moat was largely time or money - the time is would take to build an alternative software product or produce unique curriculum content. And the money is would take to employ the staff to do either.

For the longest time that worked, because selling to schools is a slow, expensive process, and it meant it was hard for new entrants to get a foothold.
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But the rules of the game have changed because of the AI leap forward, and this makes me think about the invention of gun powder artillery. Forget moats, let's talk about castles, because that's what a lot of EdTech companies look like.
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Castles were impregnable for centuries and the embodiment of power in the region. If you took the castle you took the region, but that was no easy task. For over 500 years they were the pinnacle of warfare, and then in 1453 that all changed. The invention of the cannon made traditional castle technology obsolete.

No longer where they a marker of power in the region. Instead they became a static target to attack, with a big prize to be plundered. Identify where to attack, line your cannons up, and watch their defences crumbled.

This is how I think about the AI development age. Coding agents are the cannon and SaaS EdTech companies are the castle sitting prominently on everyone's horizon right now. There are a lot of EdTech companies being lined up in the crosshairs by the next generation of founders.
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AI can produce content and code so quickly, that products that took years can be built in weeks now. We're in a brave new world, and there's no playbook to follow in how to defend against new native AI entrants, but there are some principles you can think over as I do:
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​1. Development speed is everything now - the faster you can develop, the harder you are to oust. You can't take months to produce new features. This should be done in weeks, because if you're not building it, someone else is.

2. Operational excellence is a necessity, not an option - your staff need to be spending time face to face - winning new business, expanding revenue, or building new features to sell. It's controversial but there's no role for a support person answering emails from a school today. AI can do that for less than £1k per year. The majority of sales admin can be automated.

3. Ensure leadership interaction - there's lot of ways to do this but a simple one is automating reports on progress, or impact, or anything that they'll find interesting and therefore won't want to lose. And once you're interacting, learn what they need to be more effective - then build it!
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And if you're on the other side of the battlefield pushing a few cannons up to the brow of a hill to take aim at that big castle on the horizon, then tally ho! I'm right there with you as I'm taking aim at some US equity owned juggernauts in my own sector. Let's see how well they can protect against my AI native startup. Ready the cannonballs!

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It's always great to chat so tell me what you're up to, or if you'd like to jump on a video call for a virtual coffee let me know. If you're looking for some extra firepower for your own marketing, my AI marketing to Schools webinar session is available on demand.
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In it I share a number of the workflows, AI platforms, and AI agents I'm using to win schools at scale.
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It's currently got a 5/5 rating from nearly 40 respondents so far.

Have a great weekend,

Jay

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Don't forget to pre-register for the School Sales Club if you haven't already. Lots of exciting, high impact tools and techniques are going to be shared there.