Extraction or expansion

Leaders deploying AI face a binary choice: extraction (cut costs from existing operations) or expansion (grow what the organisation is capable of). The apprenticeship pipeline paradox: if juniors never do the grunt work AI now handles, how do they develop the judgment that makes seniors valuable? Hiring as deliberate investment, not necessity. What happened this week: * Software stocks down ~30% since October while broader tech flat (Salesforce, Adobe, ServiceNow each down 25-30%). Market pricing in structural shift as AI enables smaller tools to replace enterpris... * Goldman Sachs 'AI-nxiety': 70% of S&P 500 discussed AI on earnings calls, only 1% quantified impact. Median reported gain 30%, concentrated in customer support and software development only * AI retroactively reclassified legal work: general-purpose Claude outperforms expensive legal AI products. Tasks billed at premium rates for decades revealed as procedural, not cognitive What to try: * Run AI and human on same task, focus on disagreements: 78% overlap in one test, but value was at the edges where only one method surfaced findings * Map your org on Gen 1 vs Gen 2 AI tools landscape: most orgs stuck on constrained defaults, need parallel strategies for the many (move to competent use) and the best (accelerate with agentic tools) Read the full edition with all links and sources: https://steadman.ai/newsletters/david/#edition-2026-03-07