Perhaps execution is cheap now and ideas aren't?

Personally I'm quite pleased with this inversion.

As someone else implied in their comment...

If execution no longer matters, then what possible ideas exist out there that both are highly valuable as well as only valuable to the first mover? If the second person to see the value in the idea can execute it in a weekend using AI tools, what value is there in the idea to begin with?

In fact the second mover advantage seems to me to be even larger than before. Let someone else get the first version out the door, then you just point your AI bot at the resulting product to copy it in a fraction of the time it took the original person to execute on it.

If anything, ideas seem to be even cheaper to me in this new world. It probably just moves what bits of execution matter even more towards sales and marketing and hype vs. executing on the actual product itself.

I think there might be some interesting spaces here opening up in the IP combined with "physical product" space. Where you need the idea as well as real-world practical manufacturing skills in order to execute. That will still be somewhat of a moat for a little while at least, but mostly at a scale where it's not worth an actual manufacturer from China to spin up a production line to compete with you at scale.

While that’s theoretically correct, as soon as your idea is a product, that’s done deal now everyone can just execute at a stupid speed.

You might get head start but just like a bicycle race the one behind you will be more efficient because you already solved the domain problems and figured out the UX.

Believe me mate, everyone has ideas. Even if you have a good one I guarantee a thousand other people have thought of it first.

Ideas are always cheap.

Eventually you will have to tell people what the idea is, even if it is at product launch. And then, if execution is as cheap and easy as they claim, then anyone can replicate the idea without having to engage with the person in the first place.

Ideas will never not be cheap.