The new generation of AI automates workflows, acting as "teammates" for employees. This creates entirely new, greenfield markets focused on productivity gains for every individual, representing a TAM potentially 10x larger than the previous SaaS era, which focused on replacing existing systems of record.

GC systematically evaluates industries by mapping their core tasks against four specific buckets where AI is most effective: customer success, data entry, content creation, and basic logic/reasoning. An industry must have significant activity in these areas to be a viable roll-up candidate.

As AI agents take over task execution, the primary role of human knowledge workers evolves. Instead of being the "doers," humans become the "architects" who design, model, and orchestrate the workflows that both human and AI teammates follow. This places a premium on systems thinking and process design skills.

The economic incentive for VCs funding AI is replacing human labor, a $13 trillion market in the US alone. This dwarfs the $300 billion SaaS market, revealing the ultimate goal is automating knowledge work, not just building software.

The ability to code is not just another domain for AI; it's a meta-skill. An AI that can program can build tools on demand to solve problems in nearly any digital domain, effectively simulating general competence. This makes mastery of code a form of instrumental, functional AGI for most economically valuable work.

The true market opportunity for AI is not merely replacing existing software but automating human labor. This reframes the total addressable market (TAM) from the ~$400 billion global software industry to the $13 trillion US-only labor market, representing a thirty-fold increase in potential value.

The new AI technology landscape is a layered 'Collaborative Intelligence Stack.' It starts with hardware and models but culminates in 'AI teammates'—agentic AIs that augment human workers. The largest future value lies in this top layer, which could capture 10-20% of the $30 trillion global knowledge worker spend.

The next wave of AI isn't just about tools; it's about "AI teammates" that augment human capabilities. This shift from "artificial" to "collaborative" intelligence will create a $3-6 trillion market by automating mundane tasks and unlocking new potential for knowledge workers, rivaling the entire IT industry.

Nadella frames the progression of AI tools for knowledge workers as following the same path as coding assistants: from simple suggestions, to chat interfaces, to executing actions, and finally to fully autonomous agents. This provides a clear roadmap for product development and user adoption in the AI space.