A sustainable competitive advantage that protects a business from competitors, borrowed from the defensive trenches around medieval castles.
In the AI era, the moat question has become urgent: what advantages actually hold when AI capabilities are rapidly commoditizing?
Traditional moats - proprietary technology, specialized expertise, information asymmetry - erode faster when AI can replicate capabilities in months rather than years. The new moats are emerging around data (unique datasets that can't be easily replicated), network effects (platforms that get smarter as more users join), and speed of learning (organizations that can iterate faster than competitors).
Warren Buffett popularized the term for investing. Now every leader needs to ask: in a world where AI makes intelligence cheap and ubiquitous, what's your moat?
The key insight is that companies that win won't be those with the best AI - AI capabilities are converging. They'll be those with advantages AI can amplify but not replace.