The AI Gold Rush · field steps

Step 3 of 6 · If the model were free

The model is flour. The paid job is the cake.

Imagine the AI were free for everyone tomorrow. Write what your customer would still pay you for. If your answer is "the model" or "better prompts", this page will tell you.

The one idea

Call it residual value: what is still worth paying for once the AI part costs nothing. For example, checking the output, delivering it, or keeping the records.

TodayModel becomes free Sells the model model nothing left Sells a job the job the job → floor rider→ cheaper inputs, same cake Schematic. When the model gets cheaper, a job-seller's costs fall. A model-seller's reason to be paid falls with it.

A wrapper that kept selling

Wrapper (software built on someone else's model). TypingMind reported about US$130–160k a month in sales in October 2025, more than half from team plans. People paid for the team workspace, not the model. Founder newsletter

"All wrappers die" isn't true. What matters is what the layer does.

A ride that ended

Tome's prompt-to-slides product closed in April 2025. The closure is documented; the cause is not proven. A team workflow on existing files would have been a stronger claim.

Your blank

If the model were free, they would still pay me for ___.

Survives a free model:

Disappears with a free model:

Your result

BLANK

This week

DoShow your sentence to three possible buyers. Ask: "Would you pay for that if the AI part were free?"
Don'tArgue "wrapper or not". Architecture is not customer value.
Kill ifThe whole reason to pay disappears when the capability is free and convenient.

You now have: