AI has been all over the headlines as of late, and not for pleasant reasons. From dystopian warnings like Matt Shumer’s essay that we discussed two weeks back, to tumultuous tech stock tumbles, and even a standoff between the Pentagon and Anthropic. AI is omnipresent. And this Thursday, Block announced massive layoffs, citing that they need to radically change how they run their company, or risk becoming obsolete because of AI.
Everyone is spooked, to say the least. So when we had a call this week with a potential client about an AI product she wants to build, we were surprised by her reasoning…
Let’s call this client Sam.
Sam isn’t a software engineer. She’s a consultant who helps complex organizations improve how they design and run their programs. For more than 10 years, she’s built a successful business delivering results through a specific, repeatable process—one that still relies heavily on manual work, judgment calls, and experience that can’t easily be handed off.
So why does she want to build this product?
Because she asked herself a question most people avoid: How could I put myself out of business?
Not because her business is failing. Quite the opposite. She’s thriving, but she can see where things are headed, and she'd rather put herself out of business (and continue to make money while doing it) before someone else does.
The Prototype
If AI is going to make parts of Sam’s work easier or faster anyway, how could she be the one to shape that transition? How could she take a process that currently depends on her time and turn it into something more efficient, without losing the quality that made it valuable in the first place?
So she decided it was time to build a prototype.
She walked us through the idea. It was essentially a digital version of her consulting process. It had onboarding, an intake form, and thoughtful outputs based on client inputs. Everything was packaged as a clear analysis, grounded in a framework she's refined over years of real client work.
Then she paused and asked, almost casually:
“I'm not an engineer. But could this be real? Can I charge for this?"
Without hesitation, we responded in perfect unison: “Yes. Absolutely.”
The Product Is Your Judgment and Experience
We said yes that fast because the hard part was already done. Sam had spent 10 years building the thing that actually matters — the judgment, the framework, the process. The software is just the container.
She isn't putting herself out of business. She's putting herself out of the middle of it. Her expertise stays, but the dependency on her time doesn't. It’s a more sustainable, scalable business model, and potentially a way for her to service even more customers than she otherwise could in a more analogue-style consulting business.
The Product Inside Your Process
If you've been doing something manually for years, there's a good chance there's a product hiding inside your process. Something that doesn't replace you, but supports you. Something that lets your experience reach more people without tying it directly to your time.
Putting yourself out of business doesn't have to mean walking away. Sometimes it just means building the next version… the one that doesn't always need you in the middle of it.
Stay curious,
Julia & Russell
Win of the Week
This week, Unprompted put out a new padel product into the world. And here's how the Executive Director and Chief Executive of the US Padel Association (the governing body of padel in the United States) responded:
"It was love at first sight."
We've been calling our court time "market research" for months. This week it actually paid off.
