It is time to be blunt: AI is going to bring many businesses to their knees. My own background is in digital publishing, and I can see the writing on the wall. The model of "selling information" is collapsing because intelligence is becoming free.
If your business relies on being a middleman for data, you are currently standing on a fault line. The earthquake isn't coming; it's already shaking.
The Destroyer
We are witnessing the end of the "Information Arbitrage" era. For twenty years, you could make a fortune just by organizing information better than the next guy (SEO, niche blogs, directories). That era is dead.
AI doesn't just organize information; it synthesizes it instantly. It renders the "Information Middleman" obsolete.
The Force Multiplier
But here is the paradox: The same tool that destroys the "Information Business" is turbocharging the "Creation Business."
While AI is killing my old industry, it is acting as the Chief Operating Officer for my new one. As I build Oak Haven (a physical goods business), AI handles the friction that usually kills startups:
- Supply Chain: It helps source raw materials and analyze logistics.
- Compliance: It summarizes dense legal requirements for labeling and safety.
- Design: It iterates on packaging concepts in seconds, not weeks.
The Solo Manufacturer
In the past, to run a manufacturing brand, you needed a team of ten. You needed a lawyer, a logistics manager, a designer, and a copywriter.
Today, a single Watchman with an AI "Exoskeleton" can run that entire operation.
This is the trade-off. We are losing the easy money of the digital age, but we are gaining the ability to build complex, physical enterprises with a team of one. The barrier to entry for information has vanished, but the barrier to entry for execution has never been more surmountable.
The Protocol: Do not mourn the business model that AI killed. Use the killer as a tool to build something harder to kill.
