Software enters the 'disposable era': tokens, not developers, become the scarce factor
aigclink · x · 2026-09-01
The author argues a paradigm shift: enterprises used to buy software when they had a need, making developers the scarce resource; now they build it themselves with AI, entering a 'disposable software' era where tokens become the scarcest production factor — competing on token quantity or quality.
The resulting ecosystem layers: model companies, token factories (compute + open models), FDEs (plumbers delivering tokens into scenarios), emerging vertical expert models, and surrounding infra. FDE/OPC work is essentially token delivery; humans remain as maintenance for what can't be digitized.
Conclusion: Agents are just the pipe fitting at the doorstep, not the core. The key question of this era is 'who gives me cheap, good tokens' — figure that out before building more SaaS.
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