Every week seems to bring a new headline about what artificial intelligence will disrupt, replace or make obsolete.

Jobs. Industries. Entire professions.

Some people are even starting to ask whether AI will make money itself “worthless”.

It won’t.

But AI is accelerating a much more fundamental shift:
which business models create value, and which ones steadily lose it.

Over the past year, we’ve been developing a point of view about this from a business-model perspective rather than a technology one. These are not predictions. They’re working hypotheses — intended to provoke thought rather than claim certainty.

AI is destroying the value of some things (not money)

AI is rapidly driving the cost of many forms of knowledge work towards zero, including:

• Writing
• Design
• Basic coding
• Research
• Analysis
• Customer support

As a result, the outputs of knowledge work are getting cheaper.

This can feel like “money is losing meaning”.
More accurately, certain services are losing pricing power.

We’ve seen this pattern before.

Calculators killed paid arithmetic.
Excel eroded bookkeeping margins.
The internet killed classified advertising.

Technology didn’t remove money.
It removed value from specific activities.

AI is doing the same — at scale.

Scarcity still rules everything

Money only truly loses meaning if scarcity disappears.

AI doesn’t remove scarcity.
It shifts it.

Things becoming more valuable:

• Trust
• Taste
• Judgment
• Relationships
• Reputation
• Physical assets
• Real-world experiences
• Original thinking (not remixing)
• Brand

Meanwhile:

Information becomes abundant.
Noise explodes.
True meaning becomes scarce.

Future advantage comes less from access to information and more from the ability to create relevance, preference and belief.

AI amplifies leverage (it doesn’t flatten the world)

A popular narrative is that AI will “democratise” opportunity.

A more realistic view is that AI amplifies leverage.

One person (or company) with:

• A clear point of view
• Taste
• Distribution
• Brand
• Audience

Plus AI

Can create disproportionate impact.

AI becomes a force multiplier, not an equaliser.

Which suggests widening gaps between:

Branded vs unbranded businesses
IP owners vs service providers
Platforms vs participants

A related misconception is that automating tasks automatically destroys jobs.

Historically, the opposite pattern dominates. When technology lowers the cost of specific tasks, work reorganises before it disappears. Bookkeeping software didn’t eliminate accountants; it pushed them toward advisory and forensic work. Automation in law didn’t eliminate paralegals; it shifted effort from document scanning to anomaly detection and client management.

AI follows the same logic. It reprices tasks, not human relevance.

Which means the real question isn’t “Which jobs vanish?”
It’s “Which activities inside jobs, and inside businesses, lose value – and which ones become more valuable?”

The fundamental shift: from labour to leverage

For decades, many businesses have operated on a simple equation:

Work more → earn more

AI accelerates a different equation:

Build once → earn repeatedly

Value increasingly migrates toward:

• Intellectual property
• Brands
• Audiences
• Platforms
• Systems

In practical terms, businesses that rely purely on selling hours, effort or capacity face structural pressure. Businesses that own scalable assets gain structural advantage. This doesn’t mean services disappear. It means services without leverage struggle to hold margin.

A working hypothesis

In an AI-shaped economy, the most resilient businesses will be those that can clearly answer:

• What do we own?
• What could we license, platform, systemise or scale?
• Why would someone choose us specifically?
• What scarcity do we create or protect?

This pushes strategy upstream of marketing. Before channels, campaigns or optimisation: The business model itself becomes the primary strategic question. Some implications worth considering

• Brand becomes an economic asset, not just a communications layer
• IP definition becomes as important as product definition
• Visibility follows relevance, not tactics
• Marketing activity becomes an expression of strategy, not a substitute for it

A final thought

AI doesn’t eliminate the need for businesses. It raises the bar on what kind of businesses succeed.

Those built purely on labour will feel increasing pressure.
Those built on leverage will find new opportunity.

The interesting question isn’t “What tools should we use?”

It’s:

What should we be building that’s worth scaling?

— Rod Curtis
Kommunal – Brand Strategy Architects