Before replacing human workers, AI expands the total addressable market by making services economically viable for previously unserved segments. For instance, Intercom customers now offer AI support to their free users, something they could never afford with human agents.

The biggest opportunity for AI isn't just automating existing human work, but tackling the vast number of valuable tasks that were never done because they were economically inviable. AI and agents thrive on low-cost, high-consistency tasks that were too tedious or expensive for humans, creating entirely new value.

AI's job-creation potential stems from its ability to unlock demand in six ways: price, access, complexity, continuity, personalization, and relational value. This moves beyond the simple narrative of cost reduction, providing a framework for identifying new markets and services that AI will make viable.

Contrary to the popular belief that AI's main purpose is to replace humans for less money, user data shows its primary benefit is enabling entirely new functions. As AI costs rise, the focus will shift from simple cost-cutting to strategic investments in capabilities that were previously impossible.

The focus on AI automating existing human labor misses the larger opportunity. The most significant value will come from creating entirely new types of companies that are fully autonomous and operate in ways we can't currently conceive, moving beyond simple replacement of today's jobs.

The narrative of AI destroying jobs misses a key point: AI allows companies to 'hire software for a dollar' for tasks that were never economical to assign to humans. This will unlock new services and expand the economy, creating demand in areas that previously didn't exist.

Contrary to fears of mass job replacement, businesses are primarily leveraging AI as a growth engine. Instead of simply cutting operational costs, firms are using AI-driven productivity gains to take on more clients, increase their scope of work, and capture greater market share, reframing the technology's impact as expansionary.

The common analogy of AI being "like a website" that every company must adopt may be misleading. The real transformative power of AI could be in enabling entirely new, AI-native businesses that leapfrog incumbents, rather than simply being a feature tacked onto existing products.

The most significant value from AI is not in automating existing tasks, but in performing work that was previously too costly or complex for an organization to attempt. This creates entirely new capabilities, like analyzing every single purchase order for hidden patterns, thereby unlocking new enterprise value.