As AI commoditizes user interfaces, enduring value will reside in the backend systems that are the authoritative source of data (e.g., payroll, financial records). These 'systems of record' are sticky due to regulation, business process integration, and high switching costs.

China's durable advantage isn't just its massive workforce but the collective "process knowledge" generated on factory floors. This expertise in solving countless small manufacturing problems cannot be easily written down or encoded in equipment, creating a powerful, hard-to-replicate competitive moat.

When asked if AI commoditizes software, Bravo argues that durable moats aren't just code, which can be replicated. They are the deep understanding of customer processes and the ability to service them. This involves re-engineering organizations, not just deploying a product.

Tesla's most profound competitive advantage is not its products but its mastery of manufacturing processes. By designing and building its own production line machinery, the company achieves efficiencies and innovation cycles that competitors relying on third-party equipment cannot match. This philosophy creates a deeply defensible moat.

GE serves two distinct customers: powerful airframers for the initial sale and a fragmented base of hundreds of airlines for aftermarket services. This split forces new entrants to solve a '3D puzzle' of satisfying both technically demanding OEMs and a global user base simultaneously, creating an immense and durable barrier to entry.

TSMC's "pure-play foundry" model, where it only manufactures chips and doesn't design its own, builds deep trust. Customers like Apple and NVIDIA can share sensitive designs without fear of competition, unlike with rivals Intel and Samsung who have their own chip products.

Investor Henry Ellenbogen favors two types of competitive advantages. First, hard-to-replicate physical assets like distribution networks, which are messy and time-consuming to build. Second, “soft” moats built on elite human systems for talent development, operational excellence (like the Danaher Business System), and sharp capital allocation. These are harder to see but just as powerful as physical scale.

Taiwan's TSMC dominates advanced chip manufacturing not only through technical excellence but also its business model. By acting as a pure-play foundry that doesn't compete with its clients (unlike Intel or Samsung), it fostered unique trust and partnerships, making it the central hub of the semiconductor ecosystem and a critical geopolitical asset.

As AI commoditizes business execution, true defensibility will come from creative ingenuity in areas like go-to-market strategy or novel business models. This form of creativity cannot be generated by AI, making it a rare and durable competitive advantage.