Redefining Value: Competing Where AI Can’t Go

A practice owner said something recently that I haven’t been able to shake:

“The future isn’t in scale. It’s in connection.”

It’s a simple sentence. But it reframes everything.

Especially in a time when disruption gets talked about like a buzzword—mostly tied to AI, automation, or the next digital platform.

But here’s the truth:

Technology doesn’t disrupt industries. Value does.

Hinge Health didn’t just build a better tech stack—they redefined what patients could expect from MSK care. They offered something even national therapy groups haven’t figured out: a scalable, convenient, always-on experience.

That wasn’t just efficiency. It was a shift in what people are willing to pay for.

So the strategy isn’t to beat Hinge Health at their own game.

It’s to stop playing it.

Lead a different game. Define a different win.

Because there are jobs that Hinge can’t do.

Clayton Christensen’s work still holds: people don’t buy services—they hire them to make progress in their lives.

At the low end of care delivery, the “job” might be convenience, cost, or quick relief.

But that’s not the only job people need done.

And as AI gets woven into everything—those transactional jobs will be handled faster and cheaper than any of us ever could.

Which makes this even more valuable:

• To feel seen.

• To be part of something healing.

• To experience care that builds trust, not just transactions.

You can’t automate that.

You can’t outsource it.

And you can’t fake it with branding.

The clinics that will thrive in the next era aren’t just more efficient. They’re more human.

They build systems around belonging, trust, and emotional clarity.

They train their teams not just to deliver care—but to deliver connection.

They price their services based on the deeper job they’re actually doing.

That’s not soft. It’s strategic.

That’s not competing with AI. It’s becoming irreplaceable.

As CEO, you’ve already learned how to scale productivity.

Now the real work is this:

• Scale connection.

• Build systems that support it.

• Train your staff to deliver it consistently.

• Price and communicate in a way that reflects the emotional value people are hiring you for.

Quiet clarity beats loud hustle.

Not every decision is hard. Some just need to be made.

Let this be one of them.