Question 1

Who will win in the AI era—those using AI or those redesigning work around it?

Accepted Answer

_The real competitive advantage comes from workflow redesign, not just tool adoption._

> The winners will be those who either build the platforms or rearrange the workflows in order to be effective. Yes, there will be people who then use ChatGPT to write an email, but the winners will be those who redesign work around it.

Source: [From Google to Cornell: Rethinking AI Workflows | Lutz Finger | Build AI Podcast 17](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2026-04-16-from-google-to-cornell-rethinking-ai-workflows-lutz-finger-build-ai-podcast-17/)

Question 2

Why are fine-tuned models on proprietary data the real moat, not another foundation model?

Accepted Answer

_The same transformer everyone has becomes a defensible asset only when trained on data nobody else holds._

> Cyriac uses the same transformer that is the basis for AI generally, but he trains it on data from his own wet lab that nobody else has, to get a fine-tuned model that can answer questions nobody else can. The future right now is really fine-tuned models trained on specific data nobody else has. There is a race on data and a race on fine-tuned models, and the same underlying idea is happening in every industry across the globe.

Source: [Tomorrow's Medicine, with Cyriac Roeding (eCornell Keynote)](https://ecornell.cornell.edu/keynotes/view/K052126/)

Q&A, competitive advantage

Who will win in the AI era—those using AI or those redesigning work around it?

Why are fine-tuned models on proprietary data the real moat, not another foundation model?