Lochhead on Marketing 210 Is Agentic AI the End of SaaS as We Know It? | DisrupTV
Make AI The Core, Not A Sidecar
- AI is not an add-on; it must be the core of new companies and careers.
- Treat AI as a co-founder and design products and markets from that starting point.
The $13 Trillion Existing Market Trap
- Many AI vendors fall into the 'existing market trap' by chasing established AI names and demand.
- Companies that create new categories with AI will capture disproportionate value versus those who merely improve old markets.
Watch The Words You Use About AI
- Listen to the words vendors use; metaphors like 'assistant' reveal incremental thinking.
- Reframe language toward radical difference to change customer beliefs and behavior.
In a special episode from the DisrupTV studios, marketing visionaries Christopher Lochhead, Ray Wang, Vala Afshar, and guest Sunil Karkera dive deep into the themes of Christopher Lochhead’s latest book, The Existing Market Trap.
The conversation is a masterclass in modern marketing strategy, category design, and the seismic impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on business. If you’re a marketer, entrepreneur, or executive looking to future-proof your company and career, this episode is a must-listen.
Welcome to Lochhead on Marketing. The number one charting marketing podcast for marketers, category designers, and entrepreneurs with a different mind.
Understanding the Existing Market Trap
Most companies fail not because their products are bad, but because they compare their innovations to old market standards. This “existing market trap” forces them to compete in crowded, established categories, dooming them to incremental improvements and eventual irrelevance.
Lochhead warns that trillions in investment will be lost if companies keep chasing existing markets instead of creating new ones, and much of the 90%+ startup failure rate is due to the trap of incrementalism, trying to be “better” rather than “different.” The key is to stop benchmarking new products against legacy solutions and instead ask: What new problem are we solving, and how can we define a new category around it?
The Power of Category Design
Category design is the discipline of creating and dominating new market categories. It’s not just a marketing tactic, it’s a strategic mindset shift. Markets are groups of people with a shared problem, while categories are defined by what people believe can solve that problem. Companies like OpenAI and Nvidia didn’t chase existing demand, they created it. Legendary category designers start with a vision of a radically different future and work backward, understanding that the language used to describe a product and category shapes what people believe is possible.
Ultimately, the most powerful thing you can “ship” is a new belief about what’s possible. Rather than out-featuring competitors, the goal is to redefine the game and build the aisle, not just fight for shelf space.
AI as a Co-Founder, Not a Copilot
Treating AI as a mere “assistant” or “copilot” is a massive missed opportunity. AI should be the core foundation of your business and career. When AI is just an add-on, it leads to incremental change, but when it is treated as a co-founder, it enables exponential, net-new value creation.
The next generation will be “native AI”; they’ll expect AI to be at the center of everything. To take advantage of this, businesses should integrate AI deeply, building processes, products, and even company culture around AI from the ground up, and reimagine roles so that AI is seen as a creative partner, not just a tool.
To hear more of this amazing dialogue between marketing geniuses, download and listen to this episode.
Links
If you wish to check out more episodes from DisrupTV, you can do so on these links:
LinkedIn | X (formerly Twitter) | Youtube | Apple Podcast | Website
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!