AI or Die
What breaks when software starts doing the work?
AI is not another feature cycle. It is changing the assumptions underneath software, services, organizations, and work itself.
AIorDie is where I write about what stops being true next.
Not AI hype. AI consequences.
Dead Idea #005
The application owns the user.
It may own the data. It may own the rules. It may even execute the transaction. None of that guarantees it owns the interaction anymore.
Read the Dead IdeaDead Idea 005
The application owns the user.
AIorDie
Dead Ideas
A lot of valuable companies are built on assumptions that stopped being questioned.
Technology shifts rarely make everything obsolete.
They do something more interesting. They change which part of the stack matters most.
Dead Ideas is a running list of assumptions I think AI is weakening, repricing, or making irrelevant.
The company may survive. The technology may survive. The old source of value may not.
Dead Idea #005
The application owns the user.
The most valuable enterprise application may become invisible to the person using it.
August 25, 2026 · Software
Dead Idea #004
Productivity is the goal.
Saving ten hours is useful. Removing ten days from the path between decision and outcome is different.
July 21, 2026 · Work
Dead Idea #003
An AI strategy is enough.
Most companies do not have an AI problem. They have an operating-model problem that AI is exposing.
May 19, 2026 · Organization
Dead Idea #002
Headcount is scale.
For services businesses in particular, this assumption is about to get expensive.
May 5, 2026 · Services
Dead Idea #001
AI is a feature.
If your AI strategy ends with adding AI to the product, you may be improving yesterday’s architecture.
April 21, 2026 · Software
The Screen Can Shrink. Governance Cannot.
The strongest objection to the disappearing application is also the reason the execution layer becomes valuable.
Software Is Becoming the Work
The important shift is not that software got smarter. It is that software can increasingly act.
The Workflow Escaped the Application
Once intelligence can coordinate across systems, the boundaries of the application stop being the boundaries of the work.
Signals
Watch what the market is telling you.
The future rarely announces itself as a strategy deck. It usually appears first as a product decision, pricing change, organizational move, or seemingly small technical capability.
Signal #002
The SDLC Is Becoming Agent-Executed
Coding agents are not simply making developers type faster. They are changing what software engineering work looks like.
August 18, 2026 · Work
Signal #001
AI Is Moving From Assist to Execute
The language around enterprise AI is changing because the capability boundary is changing.
July 7, 2026 · Software
AI or Die
The old model will not send a resignation letter.
It will keep working.
Then work a little less well.
Then compound a little less value.
Then one day everyone will agree the market changed years ago.
I’m more interested in noticing earlier.