Reshuffle: Who wins when AI restacks the knowledge economy

despite their technical differences, their underlying economics are remarkably similar. The shared economic logic of these technologies rests on two key principles: their ability to dramatically increase the capacity for performing knowledge work, and their ability to simplify the coordination of such work towards greater, better, and more novel ou

makes AI truly transformative is not its performance on benchmarks of intelligence but rather its ability to model, mediate, and move fragmented systems toward alignment. The real promise and potential of AI lies in whether it can extend coordination into thus-far uncoordinated segments of the economy. In this sense, AI’s real power lies not in aut

AI’s ability to model a domain and align intent and action reliably with that model makes it particularly well-suited for coordination.

AI’s true potential is to look at how these five functions - sense, model, reason, act, learn - help it bridge the gap between structured systems that already are well coordinated and the vast unstructured processes and workflows that rely on tacit knowledge, which form the backbone of today’s economy.

Tasks that once required expensive experts can now be performed more efficiently, at a lower price, and at scale.

The shared economic logic of these technologies rests on two key principles: their ability to dramatically increase the capacity for performing knowledge work, and their ability to simplify the coordination of such work towards greater, better, and more novel output.

AI’s ability to identify patterns, make predictions based on them, and continually learn from outcomes may not create human-like intelligence, but it creates something arguably more valuable and practical: the ability to adapt in response to uncertainty.

These systems falter when coordination depends not on clear rules but on judgment and interpretation. Much of that still lives in human minds as tacit knowledge that resists codification.

growing fragmentation also brought a new opportunity: coordination. The more fragmented the system and the more diverse the incentives of the players, the greater the value in aligning them to work together. Coordination, once a deadbeat managerial function, is now the most valuable function in the modern economy.