The Quiet Leverage of AI
The most valuable AI work in the next decade will not look like AI work at all.
Most of what gets called "AI" in 2026 is theatre — animated avatars, marketing copy, a thin chat box bolted onto an existing product. The work that actually compounds looks almost boring from the outside.
The shift
It is one operator using a model to do the work of five. It is a back-office function quietly absorbed into a single prompt. It is a founder who has stopped writing the first draft of anything.
What I'm watching
The interesting question is no longer *can the model do this?* It's *what is the smallest team that can now build a serious business?* My current guess is one or two people, indefinitely, for most software companies under fifty million in revenue.
That changes how I invest my own time. It changes who I hire. It changes what I build.
— Pelle, written from Stockholm.