Ugandan businessman and entrepreneur Patrick Bitature has a warning for anyone who thinks being the smartest person in the room is still enough to stay ahead: artificial intelligence is changing the game.
Bitature took to Facebook to argue that intelligence no longer gives people the competitive advantage it once did, pointing to how quickly AI can now handle tasks that traditionally required human brainpower.
Intelligence is no longer the competitive edge. A machine can out think you for the price of a Netflix subscription.
So what does Bitature think will matter when machines keep getting smarter?
He points to four things: adaptability, tenacity, human rapport and foresight.
Adaptability, he argues, matters when an old strategy stops working and people have to rethink how they operate.
Adaptability: When the old playbook stops working, can you rebuild or do you keep defending it?
Bitature also puts a premium on resilience, arguing that wanting success is easy, but dealing with setbacks separates ambition from persistence.
Tenacity: Ambition is cheap. Everyone wants the win. The rare person is the one who can take the hit, adjust and keep moving.
Then comes the part AI may have a harder time replicating: human connection.
Bitature argues that technology can help people communicate, but building trust and genuine relationships still requires a human touch.
Human rapport: AI can write the email. It can’t make someone trust you, like you, or want to do business with you.
His fourth point is foresight.
Rather than simply reacting to what is happening today, Bitature says people need to think about what could happen next, particularly while everyone else is focused on the latest success.
Foresight: The real advantage isn’t knowing what’s happening now. It’s thinking about what’s coming while everyone else is still celebrating what just happened.
Bitature’s bottom line is that success does not always come from working longer or harder.
Sometimes, he says, the advantage comes from recognising change before everyone else catches up.
Success isn’t always about working harder. Sometimes it’s simply having enough clarity to see what’s changing before the room does.
For Bitature, the rise of AI may be making raw intelligence easier to replicate.
The qualities that help people adapt, recover, build trust and anticipate change, however, remain firmly in human territory.