Back to Local
Henry Kim ·
These days, I find myself repeating the same phrase to everyone I meet, to the point of tedium: "It's time to look at local again." Not long ago, we celebrated a borderless global era. The life of a digital nomad, working from a resort island with just a laptop and earning dollars, was the symbol of success. A world where apps I created sold globally and generated income. But look around now. How many people still talk about such romance? The atmosphere has completely shifted.
The reason is clear: AI is devouring everything. The tasks we believed were 'remotely possible' were, frankly speaking, 'tasks that could only be processed by computers.' And all operations that occur within a computer are areas where AI excels. The very possibility of remote work is also proof that it's a prime candidate for AI replacement. The world within the screen is no longer the exclusive domain of humans.
That's why, paradoxically, I'm focusing on the physical world – that is, the local. While AI can write code and generate marketing copy in a second, it cannot immediately grasp the complex relationships in our neighborhood or read the subtle atmosphere of an offline setting. Within the local networks where people interact face-to-face, there's a physical complexity that AI has yet to learn. At least for now, this is the only temporal buffer zone.
Giant corporations like OpenAI will try to replace all the thinking and work I do in front of a monitor. However, the on-the-ground knowledge and infrastructure deeply embedded in specific regions and business domains are beyond the reach of their large language models. So, if someone is reading my words right now, I want to make a suggestion: Re-examine the local area you stand in, and that business, from the perspective of artificial intelligence.
I'm not vaguely suggesting you simply run an offline business. You need to reinterpret the local business structure, accumulate unique data within it, and build genuine relationships with real people. While others shout 'global' and look into the void, you should stand firmly on the ground and place AI as a tool upon it. This is the most certain strategy to dig your own moat and survive in a market dominated by artificial intelligence.
Of course, I don't know what the world will be like in 10 years. By then, even physical local might evaporate. But at least for the next few years, the game will be played out in the local, off-screen field.