Trust Is Often Just Another Way of Saying Switching Costs

For many people, trust is really just another way of saying switching costs.

For example, customers may stay with a supplier not because they truly trust you, but because switching means retraining employees; the historical data is with you and migration is a hassle; the compliance audit has already passed, and changing vendors means going through the whole process again.

These are real barriers, but they are friction barriers, not value barriers. AI is reducing that friction—data migration is becoming easier, the learning curve for new tools is getting shorter, and interoperability between tools is getting stronger.

So if you really want trust-based relationships to become a moat, that trust must be based on genuine differentiated value, not just historical inertia.