Friday Five
The line between human work and machine work is being drawn by product roadmaps, not by the limits of technology. Coding and customer support fell first because those were the markets AI companies chose to win. Financial advice and agency production are next for the same reason. Any skill still considered safe remains safe only until it reaches a product roadmap. The costs—widening gaps among researchers, pressure to compensate displaced workers—fall on people who never chose this division.
Scout's Pick — Outlier
AI is widening the gap between well-funded and ordinary economists
Here the split runs between researchers with resources and those without — a divide drawn by access and money rather than by any product roadmap.
Source: Adjacent
Paying displaced workers turns out to raise total economic welfare
If roadmaps decide who gets displaced, compensation becomes the bill for choices workers never made. The math suggests paying it helps everyone.
Source: Adjacent
Agencies are splitting into strategists who direct and shops that execute
Execution work is moving toward the roadmap first, leaving orchestration as a manual function until someone builds a product for it.
Source: Adjacent
Finance agents are coming for the advice once sold by people
Personal finance was never beyond automation. It simply had not been chosen as a market, and agents like Muse represent that choice arriving.
Source: Adjacent
AI companies are picking their next markets one after another
Coding, then support, now a third fit—each positioned as a commercial target rather than a technical limit. This is how the market draws the line.
Source: Adjacent
6 themes · 225 signals · 76 sources
Signals from adjacent fields
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