AI Floods Execution Work, but Scarcity Simply Shifts Up the Value Chain

A software developer who spent years building AI systems argues that technology never destroys economic value — it merely relocates scarcity to the next binding constraint. Drawing on historical examples such as aluminum's fall from luxury metal to commodity and the collapse in the cost of artificial light, the author contends that what loses value is not the underlying work but its pricing power. With AI now making competent writing, code, and analysis available at near-zero cost, the author warns that execution was never the top of the value ladder — it was simply the lowest rung visible. As execution becomes cheap, the scarce and therefore valuable resources shift upward to judgment, verification, and accountability. The piece is framed as both an economic observation and a personal confession from someone actively building the tools that are commoditising skilled knowledge work.