𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐁𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐁𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞…𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐍𝐨𝐰

The largest growth opportunity in most companies is not their competitors' customers. It is the people who could never afford them in the first place.

Most strategy fights over existing demand. We chase the same buyers, shave off a little market share, and call it growth.

Clayton Christensen pointed at 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞: 𝐧𝐨𝐧-𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. The people locked out of a market entirely. Finding a way to serve them has historically created more growth than any market share battle, because you are not splitting a pie. You are baking a new one.

Why are potential customers locked out? Usually one of 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬:

→ Too expensive to serve profitably
→ Too complex to use without help
→ Too far from a branch, an office, or a specialist
→ Too dependent on an expert who costs too much

𝐀𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬. That is its quiet superpower for growth.

Nubank story is the clearest proof I came across. Latin America's legacy banks rejected anyone without a credit file. No history, no account: too risky and too costly to assess. Tens of millions of adults, simply locked out.

Nubank built AI credit models that read far more than a credit score. Its foundation model, nuFormer, can safely lend to people the older models would have refused. The result: more than 120 million customers, many of them first-time borrowers the incumbents had written off, roughly 60% of Brazil's adult population. And it is profitable, with a return on equity near 27% (return on equity measures the profit generated per dollar of shareholder money).

Nubank did not win those customers from rivals.𝐈𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.

"We can't serve them profitably" is not a final verdict. It is an economics problem waiting for a solution. AI is changing the economics and creating new paths to these potential customers.

At your next strategy session, list the customers your unit economics force you to reject. Which gate keeps them out? Is it cost, complexity, distance, or expertise? Then ask what AI would have to do to lower it.

Are you turning away from customers that AI could let you serve? Time to reconsider!

#AIStrategy #AIForGrowth #BlueOcean #Disruption #Innovation

Contact

bruno.gentil@sherpaconsultingasia.com

© 2026. All rights reserved.