🌐 BEWARE! The AI Danger Zone: "Barbell Economy" Incoming

My daughter asked me last night why her friend's dad doesn't have a job anymore...

He was a graphic designer. Good one, too. Made a comfortable living for years doing logos, brand guides, social media templates—the works. Then Midjourney happened. Then Canva's AI features happened. Then his clients started asking, "Why am I paying you $3,000 when I can get something 80% as good for $30?"

He couldn't answer that question. So now he's looking for work.

I'm watching this play out everywhere. Not just in design—in copywriting, in consulting, in coaching, in marketing. People who built solid careers being really good at something are waking up to a brutal reality: really good isn't good enough anymore.

But here's what's fascinating: while the middle is getting crushed, I'm watching two groups absolutely thrive right now.

The first group? They're not the best at any one thing, but they've figured out how to orchestrate AI across five different domains. They're becoming human operating systems—and they're scaling faster than ever.

The second group? They've gone so deep into their niche that AI can't touch them. They're the true masters, and their prices are going up, not down.

Everyone else? They're stuck in no man's land.

This week's Main Event breaks down exactly what's happening and why—and more importantly, it'll force you to figure out which side of this you're on before the window closes.

The Implementation Blueprint is a quick diagnostic that'll tell you the truth about where you stand right now. It's uncomfortable, but necessary.

And the Top Reads this week—one on customer retention economics, one on modern wealth strategies, one on longevity science—are all about protecting and optimizing what matters most as the landscape shifts.

The middle is disappearing. The question is: where are you going?

Let's figure it out together in this week's Growth Stack...

Let's go!

Every week, we break down the big-picture strategy behind the shifts happening in business—so you can see around corners while others are still catching up.

When everyone has access to the same tools, positioning becomes everything. And right now, AI is splitting the market into winners and losers faster than most people realize…

Last month, I met with a marketing consultant who's been in the game for twelve years. Solid résumé. Great client list. Twenty-person agency doing $2M a year.

He looked exhausted.

"I don't know what we are anymore," he told me. "We're good at a lot of things. SEO, content, ads, email... but now ChatGPT can write copy, AI can optimize campaigns, and every client is asking why they need us when they can just use the tools themselves."

He's not alone.

Over the past six months, I've had versions of this same conversation with dozens of operators — consultants, coaches, agency owners, fractional executives. Different industries. Different expertise. Same underlying fear.

They're all starting to realize they're stuck in the dangerous middle.

The Barbell Economy Is Here

Here's what's happening that most people haven't fully processed yet…

AI isn't just another tool. It's a force multiplier that's fundamentally reshaping who wins and who loses in the knowledge economy.

And the shape it's creating isn't a smooth curve. It's a barbell.

On one end, you have generalists — people who are good at many things, who can orchestrate systems, connect dots across domains, and use AI to operate at 10x their previous capacity.

On the other end, you have deep specialists — people with rare expertise, proprietary insight, and mastery that AI can't replicate because it requires decades of pattern recognition, judgment, and lived experience.

In the middle? That's where the squeeze is happening.

The people stuck in the middle are good at something — maybe even great. They have real skills, real experience, real value. But their expertise sits in a danger zone: valuable enough to charge for, common enough for AI to approximate.

Mid-tier copywriters. Mid-level strategists. Competent-but-not-exceptional consultants.

These aren't bad operators. They're just positioned in the part of the market that AI is hollowing out first.

Why The Middle Is Getting Squeezed

Let me show you the mechanism…

Pre-AI, the value curve looked like this:

Post-AI, it's collapsing into extremes:

The middle tiers are getting compressed because AI has fundamentally changed the calculus of expertise.

If you're a solid copywriter, AI can now produce 80% of what you do. Your clients start wondering: "Why pay $5,000 when I can get 80% of the result for $20/month?"

If you're a competent financial analyst, AI can crunch the numbers, build the models, and deliver the reports. Your company starts asking: "Why keep three analysts when one person with AI can handle it?"

The uncomfortable truth…

If AI can do most of what you do, you're not charging for expertise anymore. You're charging for execution. And execution is getting cheaper by the day.

The Generalist Revolution

But here's where it gets interesting…

While the middle is getting squeezed, the extremes are getting stronger.

Let's start with generalists…

The classic career advice was to specialize. "Riches in niches." "Be known for one thing." And for decades, that made sense. Depth beat breadth.

Not anymore.

AI has democratized competence across domains. Anyone can now be decent at copywriting, design, analysis, strategy, ops — because AI fills the knowledge gaps.

This creates a new kind of operator: The AI-Enhanced Generalist

These are people who can:

Not at expert level. But at "good enough to be dangerous" level.

And "good enough" across ten domains beats "excellent" in one domain when you're building a business.

The generalist used to be a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Now? The generalist is a conductor — orchestrating AI tools to deliver outcomes that used to require a full team.

One operator with the right AI stack can replace what used to take five specialists.

That's not theory. That's happening right now.

The Specialist Counter-Move

But before you think this means "everyone should become a generalist," here's the other side of the barbell.

True specialists are becoming more valuable than ever.

Not mid-tier specialists. Not "I'm pretty good at X" specialists.

I'm talking about people with rare, deep expertise that AI can't replicate — yet, and maybe never.

These people aren't competing with AI. They're using AI to handle the commoditized parts of their work while focusing 100% of their energy on the irreplaceable judgment that only comes from mastery.

AI doesn't threaten them. It amplifies them.

The surgeon doesn't worry about AI doing research or imaging analysis — that frees them to focus on the surgery. The elite strategist doesn't worry about AI doing market research — that lets them focus on the high-stakes decisions.

The pattern: AI eats the middle-skill work and makes the top-tier work even more valuable.

The Positioning Crisis

So where does that leave most people?

Here's the uncomfortable reality: most operators are in the middle.

Not beginners. Not masters. Somewhere in between.

Good at their craft. Years of experience. Solid track record. But not so exceptional that they're irreplaceable.

That's the crisis.

Because the middle is exactly where AI is most disruptive. It's where the value proposition gets murky. It's where clients start asking: "Can I just use AI for this?"

And if the answer is "mostly yes," you're in trouble.

The hard truth is this: you can't stay in the middle and win long-term.

The market is forcing a choice. You can build width — becoming the operator who orchestrates systems across domains. Or you can build depth — becoming irreplaceable in your specific expertise.

But staying where you are? That's not an option anymore.

The middle ground — being "pretty good" at something — is becoming a commodity. And commodities compete on price, not value.

What The Winners Are Doing

The people who are positioning correctly right now fall into two camps:

Camp 1: The Orchestrators

These are operators who've stopped trying to be the best at any one thing and instead focus on being exceptionally good at combining things.

They're not trying to out-expert the experts. They're trying to out-leverage everyone.

Camp 2: The Unreplicables

These are the operators who've doubled down on depth.

They're not competing on breadth. They're competing on irreplaceability.

Both camps are winning. Both are AI-enhanced. Both have clear positioning.

The people losing? They're the ones trying to stay "good at their thing" without going to either extreme.

The Question You Need to Answer

So here's what you need to ask yourself:

Where do you actually sit right now?

Are you a generalist using AI to multiply your leverage across domains?

Are you a deep specialist with rare, irreplaceable expertise?

Or are you in the middle — good at something, but not exceptional enough to be irreplaceable, and not broad enough to be a true generalist?

If you're in the middle, the market is about to get very uncomfortable. Not next year. Not in five years. Right now.

Below, in the Implementation Blueprint section, I'll walk you through exactly how to diagnose where you are and map your path out of the danger zone.

The Bottom Line

AI doesn't replace expertise. It polarizes it.

It makes generalists more powerful by democratizing competence.

It makes specialists more valuable by handling the commodity work.

But it squeezes the middle — the "pretty good at this" operators — because that's exactly where AI thrives.

You can't fight this by getting incrementally better at what you already do.

You fight it by choosing a direction: wider or deeper.

Because the dangerous middle isn't dangerous because it's bad.

It's dangerous because it's disappearing.

And the longer you wait to move, the fewer options you'll have.

The real edge in the AI economy isn't what you know. It's where you're positioned. And right now, positioning is a choice between extremes.

AI has changed how consumers shop, but people still drive decisions. Levanta’s research shows affiliate and creator content continues to influence conversions, plus it now shapes the product recommendations AI delivers. Affiliate marketing isn’t being replaced by AI, it’s being amplified.

Download the full report

Here's where strategy meets action. Each week, we give you the tactical steps to implement what you just learned—so you can capitalize on the insight immediately.

The 5-Minute Positioning Check

The dangerous middle isn't theoretical. It's real, and it's happening now. The good news? You can diagnose where you stand and make one move out of it this week.

Answer these three questions right now:

Question 1: The Replacement Test 
If a client hired someone with AI and basic training, could they get 80% of my result?

Question 2: The Identity Test 
Fill in the blank: "I'm known for _______"

If your answer is one specific thing → You might be deep enough. If your answer is "lots of things" or unclear → You're in the middle.

Question 3: The Direction Test
Which sounds more like you?

A) I want to use AI to do MORE things and deliver bigger outcomes B) I want to use AI to go DEEPER in my specific expertise

Your Move:

Picked A? This week, add one AI-powered service to your offer. Example: "strategy + execution" instead of just "strategy."

Picked B? This week, rewrite your LinkedIn headline to be hyper-specific. Example: "Marketing consultant" becomes "Email monetization for 7-figure coaches."

That's it. Three questions. One move. Done.

The middle is disappearing whether you act or not. The only question is whether you move before you're forced to.

Every week in The Growth Stack, you'll get the framework to see what's coming and the move to position ahead of it. While everyone else reacts to AI trends, you'll be three steps ahead.

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