CEOs Can't Stop Talking About Their 'Moat'

Corporate leaders have a fresh buzzword for fending off AI—and they're leaning on it hard, writes Rohan Goswami at Semafor. At least 118 companies have told investors this quarter that they either have, or are building, a "moat" to protect the company against artificial-intelligence, he notes, citing data from AlphaSense. The rush to claim defensibility recalls earlier eras when every firm suddenly had a "blockchain strategy," and it reflects boardroom anxiety about which software players will survive the AI shakeout.

What counts as an AI moat is a little squishy, and it depends on who's talking: Etsy points to the appeal of human-made products in a sea of AI output, "being able to buy something really meaningful." Trucking firm CH Robinson cites its "domain expertise," and a Palantir exec declares that "20 years of grinding has built a unique moat." The only safe bet is that a CEO will probably brag about having a moat, even if, as Goswami, writes, "there's little evidence that investors are buying most of those narratives." The term has been around for decades in the business world, but its use has exploded in the last two or three years. The global services firm Morningstar has a "moat rating" that digs into the AI impact on companies.