It’s interesting how quickly this starts to feel like an efficiency gain from the outside and a time transfer from the inside.
As more work moves onto the end user, the system records higher productivity and lower costs, while the actual effort hasn’t disappeared - it has simply moved to a place that isn’t counted. Over time that creates a subtle gap between what looks more efficient and what actually requires more input.
That gap is easy to overlook at first, but it quietly reshapes how value is perceived and priced.
Too early to call whether AI increases or decreases employment. There's some evidence that it's shifting the mix, though. For example, there's LinkedIn data that shows junior hiring for roles that involve interaction with people are increasing (sales, business development, teaching) vs. hiring for roles that focus more on interacting with computers is falling (graphic designer, paralegal, software engineer).
What stands out to me is that the piece questions who really "owns" the future, but doesn't weigh that against how the market has already voted. Reading across 68 asset manager reports, Information Technology sits at 73.3% overweight, the single most crowded position in the entire panel.
If Frey's self-service economy is right and AI shrinks the measured market rather than expanding it, that consensus bet quietly assumes the opposite is happening.
This hits something really important: the way our time is increasingly taken up by these exciting new tools. Travel agents are another example, from the past. I happen to like doing much of our graphic design myself, using Canva, instead of having a full-time designer on staff. But there's so much slog that seems to be a higher and higher percentage of my time.
It’s interesting how quickly this starts to feel like an efficiency gain from the outside and a time transfer from the inside.
As more work moves onto the end user, the system records higher productivity and lower costs, while the actual effort hasn’t disappeared - it has simply moved to a place that isn’t counted. Over time that creates a subtle gap between what looks more efficient and what actually requires more input.
That gap is easy to overlook at first, but it quietly reshapes how value is perceived and priced.
Re: When work shifts to the consumer
Now there is a word for it!!!
Enshittification
Too early to call whether AI increases or decreases employment. There's some evidence that it's shifting the mix, though. For example, there's LinkedIn data that shows junior hiring for roles that involve interaction with people are increasing (sales, business development, teaching) vs. hiring for roles that focus more on interacting with computers is falling (graphic designer, paralegal, software engineer).
What stands out to me is that the piece questions who really "owns" the future, but doesn't weigh that against how the market has already voted. Reading across 68 asset manager reports, Information Technology sits at 73.3% overweight, the single most crowded position in the entire panel.
If Frey's self-service economy is right and AI shrinks the measured market rather than expanding it, that consensus bet quietly assumes the opposite is happening.
This hits something really important: the way our time is increasingly taken up by these exciting new tools. Travel agents are another example, from the past. I happen to like doing much of our graphic design myself, using Canva, instead of having a full-time designer on staff. But there's so much slog that seems to be a higher and higher percentage of my time.