Jul 14, 2025 · 3 min read
In evolutionary biology, there is a concept called the Red Queen effect. It describes a situation where competing species are locked in an arms race. Each one evolves just to keep up with the other, but neither gains a lasting advantage. They are running as fast as they can, just to stay in the same place.
This perfectly describes a dynamic I see unfolding everywhere in the tech world. We adopt new AI tools to gain an edge, but because everyone else adopts them too, the net result is a new, more frantic baseline. We are all running faster, but our position has not fundamentally changed.
This is not a future problem. It is happening right now in critical business functions, creating an arms race that consumes resources and increases complexity.
In hiring, companies deploy AI to test candidates, while candidates use AI co-pilots like Cluely to ace live interviews. The search for talent devolves into a costly game of detection and evasion.
In client service, companies use AI to analyze customer sentiment, while customers use AI browsers like Dia to fake frustration and trigger discounts. Building trust becomes a cat-and-mouse game played by machines.
In sales, a flood of emails from AI SDRs is met by a wall of AI-powered filters. The financial result of this stalemate is that the average cost to acquire a customer has soared to nearly five years.
This is the core of the issue. The AI ecosystem is creating the very problems it claims to solve.
The problem is not that a single AI tool is bad. The problem is the systemic effect of everyone using these tools at once. The promise of a competitive advantage disappears when everyone has the same automated weapon. The result is not efficiency; it is a massive increase in noise and a corresponding decrease in trust.
We are spending our resources not to get ahead, but to cancel each other out. We are all running as fast as we can, just to stay in the same place.
So what is the way out of this arms race? It seems the solution is not more technology.
When every skills test can be gamed by an AI, a referral from a trusted former colleague becomes the ultimate signal in hiring. When every chatbot interaction feels like a hurdle, a 30 minute call with a real person who understands your business is what builds loyalty.
As product leaders, this changes how we must think. We need to ask ourselves: how does our product facilitate genuine connection rather than just adding to the noise?
The ultimate irony is that in the age of artificial intelligence, the most valuable and scarce resource has become authentic human trust.