Dead Idea — an assumption that stopped being true.
The first response to every platform shift is predictable. Add the new thing to the old thing.
- Mobile application.
- Cloud version.
- AI assistant.
- Copilot.
- Chat interface.
Some of those additions are valuable. But they can disguise the larger change.
If AI simply makes an existing workflow faster, that is AI-enabled. If AI changes whether the workflow needs to exist at all, that is something else.
That is why I make a distinction between AI-first and AI-native.
AI-first asks where AI can improve this workflow. AI-native asks why this workflow still exists in this form.
That second question is much more disruptive.
What dies
The assumption that AI is simply another feature layer.
What survives
- Great products.
- Great workflow logic.
- Enterprise data.
- Security.
- Governance.
- Domain expertise.
Where the value moves
Toward systems designed around what AI can execute, rather than interfaces designed around what humans have historically had to do.
If you would not build the workflow the same way today, adding an AI button is probably not enough.
Written by Jason Wojahn. AIorDie is a personal publication about what breaks when software starts doing the work.
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