There’s a lot of noise right now about A.I. taking jobs. And yes, in some cases, unfortunately it will, just like every tech revolution before it. But for most people, especially in the near term, it’s not A.I. that will replace you.
It’s someone using A.I. better than you.
That’s the uncomfortable truth. We’re not yet in a world of full replacement, we’re in a world of radical augmentation. And it’s moving fast.
From writing and coding to optimisation and deployment, A.I. is already becoming the co-pilot. It’s not eliminating the human, but it’s changing what makes the human valuable. It rewards those who can think clearly, act strategically, and delegate effectively, to machines.
But that brings up a bigger, future-facing question:
What happens when everything is augmented?
At our recent CloudZero offsite, our founder Erik gave a talk that’s still echoing in my head. Alongside some of our investors, he laid out a vision for what’s next. Not just A.I. as a feature or a tool, but A.I. as a full-blown paradigm shift. A world of agentic A.I. systems that don’t wait for instructions, but act with purpose.
Give it a goal, and it gets you there.
Not like another team member, but more like an autonomous system. It doesn’t care about UI/UX. It cares about data, instructions, and outcomes.
In that world, humans are still in the picture. But maybe not because of our ability to “do stuff.”
Maybe what matters most then is what we can imagine.
When execution becomes fully automated, creativity becomes rare. When building becomes trivial, ideas become premium.
That could be the biggest shift of all.
The Rise of the Ideas Economy?
Like most people, I’ve had my fair share of ideas.
Some small, some a little bigger.
I’ve got notes scattered across apps, voice memos, and scraps of paper.
- An idea for a novel I’ve always wanted to write – half plot, no time.
- A home automation setup that syncs lighting, music, and heating to how we actually live.
- A smarter travel planner that adjusts dynamically for delays, energy levels, weather, and kids.
- A handful of random app ideas, just like everyone else – half-thought-out, maybe helpful, maybe not.
Nothing revolutionary.
But real ideas. Ones that could make life a bit better or more interesting. Ones I’d build if I had the time, budget, or the right team.
And that’s the point:
Right now, most of us don’t build our ideas. Not because they’re not worth building, but because the cost to try is still too high.
But A.I.? It’s beginning to change that.
It dramatically lowers the barrier to starting.
You still need to build a real business if you want to scale, there’s no shortcut past product-market fit, legal frameworks, customers, support, or strategy.
But the route from idea to prototype?
From concept to something you can test, validate, or show?
That’s getting cheaper, faster, and more accessible than ever.
Which got me thinking:
What if we’re entering an Ideas Economy?
Not just marketplaces for products, but for potential.
For unbuilt, unshipped raw imagination.
Imagine:
- A place where ideas can be licensed, remixed, and built by autonomous agents.
- Platforms where you submit a concept and an A.I. builds the MVP.
- Royalties paid not for the execution, but for the blueprint.
- Firms who specialise in generating, packaging, and monetising ideas, like an agency for creativity itself.
But if that’s where we’re going, we’ve got big questions to answer:
- Who owns an idea? Can you copyright it? License it?
- How are ideas shared? Do we need a standard format, like a TCP/IP for ideas, so both humans and machines can understand and act on them?
- How do you value an idea? By potential revenue? Societal impact? Patentability?
- What happens when A.I. builds your idea before you do? Do you still own it?
We don’t have the answers yet.
But we’re heading there fast!
From Hands to Head and Heart
If A.I. becomes the hands, we need to become the head and the heart.
The value won’t lie in how well you can execute a plan, but in which plan you choose to execute. In the insight behind the idea. In how clearly you can define the outcome, and how creatively you can envision what’s worth doing in the first place.
That’s where the next competitive advantage lies:
Not in action. In imagination.
So here’s what I’m wondering, and I’d love to hear from others too:
- If A.I. could handle the legwork, what idea would you finally bring to life?
- And how would you want that idea protected, valued, or shared?
We’re on the edge of something massive, and it’s moving faster than most of us can process.
The question isn’t if the nature of value changes.
It’s whether your idea is ready when it does!
