Greg IsenbergGreg Isenberg • Following • FollowingCEO of Late Checkout, a portfolio of internet companiesCEO of Late Checkout, a portfolio of internet companies
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I've spent the last 24 hours with ChatGPT 4o images, and it's clear we've entered a new reality: "Execution is cheap, ideas are everything."
For decades, we were told the opposite. Everyone had ideas. Few could execute them well. The ability to turn a concept into reality separated the winners from the dreamers.
But in an AI world, it's completely flipped.
When anyone can execute at 90% perfection with the right prompts, the limiting factor becomes the quality of your ideas. The creative direction. The strategic insight. The unique perspective.
The most successful companies I'm seeing are shifting resources from production to ideation. Less time pushing pixels, more time exploring concepts.
They're running 20-30 creative directions where they used to do 2-3, because the cost of trying ideas has collapsed.
In a world where anyone can create a beautiful website, logo, or packaging, the winners are focusing on the things AI can't (yet) simulate:
I think it's authentic relationships, innovative products, and unique perspectives.
The real advantage is in knowing when to break the rules of good design in ways that resonate emotionally.
The human touch is becoming less about execution and more about strategic deviation from the optimized norm.
This is creating strange new dynamics in hiring too. When I started our design agency LCA, we hired for world class technical skills - mastery of tools, execution ability.
But now we care more about hiring for conceptual ability and creative direction. People who consistently generate novel ideas rather than perfect executions. Obviously, top tech skills still matter, but way less.
As AI makes "good enough" design accessible to everyone, the market is splitting. At the low end, good enough is actually good enough.
But at the high end, there's a premium on the truly unexpected - the ideas an AI wouldn't generate because they break conventional patterns.
I think we're heading toward a bifurcated creative world: automated beauty for most purposes, with human creativity focused on creating the unexpected, the ideas and approaches an AI wouldn't think to try because they don't follow established patterns of "good design."
The challenge for most of us now isn't "how do we execute this idea?" but "which ideas are actually worth executing?"
Like this Sam Altman meme that @phill__1 on X created. Really smart.
Execution is cheap, ideas are everything.
Tremendous alpha in it.
You're an idea person now. We all are?
Note: we wrote a book on designing products in the AI age and giving away the PDF for free here https://lnkd.in/dpSWbkhN