How artificial intelligence is destroying capital in the knowledge economy
How artificial intelligence is destroying capital in the knowledge economy
Publish Date: 2026-03-14 14:00:00
Source Domain: www.afr.com
- In 2021, developing a minimum viable software product demanded the efforts of a team of engineers over three months and cost approximately $50,000.
- In 2026, a single individual using an artificial intelligence (AI) coding assistant can create a comparable product over the span of a weekend for just a few thousand dollars, primarily due to API costs.
- McKinsey’s findings reveal that generative AI has reduced developer task completion times by 20% to 45% for various common coding activities.
- Under international accounting standards, intangible assets must be written down when their value exceeds what can be recovered.
- If the cost of replicating software has dropped by a third to a half compared to previous costs, intellectual property on many corporate balance sheets could be overstated by an equal margin.
