u/Gloomy_Register_2341

OpenAI and Anthropic are both raising billions to launch consulting businesses that embed engineers inside companies. Which is basically admitting that selling API access alone isn't moving the needle on productivity. A big RCT with Copilot backs this up: workers saved time on email but output stayed flat, people just stopped working evenings.

Meanwhile China's going the opposite direction. After open-source agent OpenClaw went viral, local governments started subsidizing individual operators instead of firms. Compute vouchers, super-app integration, the works. The bet is one person with a laptop can plug into existing supply chains and skip the traditional company entirely.

Two very different theories of how AI actually changes the economy, neither proven yet.