The Tech Giants Are The Canaries in the Coal Mine

In 2023, Shopify laid off 20% of its employees. Since then, revenue is up 91%—and headcount hasn’t budged.

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg is panic-buying AI researchers for $50 million apiece. These aren’t contradictory stories. They’re the same story—and it’s coming for your business whether you’re ready or not.

Here’s what actually happened at Shopify: CEO Tobi Lütke looked at his bloated org chart and set a new hiring rule—prove AI can’t do the job before approving a new hire. Not “could a human do it better?” but “is AI incapable of doing this at all?”

That’s the new hiring bar. And it vaporized 20% of Shopify’s workforce while nearly doubling revenue.

Here’s the plot twist: Two years after Shopify’s cuts, Meta is writing astronomical checks to individual humans—not companies, not patents—just people who understand large language models better than 99.999% of the planet.

This isn’t schizophrenia. It’s the new economy in perfect clarity.

We’re witnessing the biggest talent arbitrage in history. On one side: millions of jobs AI is about to delete—customer service reps, junior analysts, content writers, basic coders. Walking dead who just don’t know it yet.

On the other side: maybe 10,000 people worldwide who truly understand how to build and deploy AI at scale. They’re naming their price, and tech giants are paying it.

Your local accounting firm is about to discover what Silicon Valley already knows: one sharp operator with the right AI tools can outperform an entire department of mediocre employees.

The uncomfortable truth? Most of your team is doing work AI can already do better, faster, and without vacation time. But the humans who can do what AI can’t—genuine relationship-building, creative problem-solving, strategic vision—are about to become insanely valuable.

That operations manager you’re paying $75K? They’ll either level up into an AI-augmented strategist worth $150K… or they’ll be gone. No middle ground.

This is the paradox that breaks most owners’ brains: fewer people, paid more, generating higher profits.

The equation isn’t just changing—it’s already changed. While you debate the ethics, your competition is implementing the reality.

I built OwnerRx for business owners who get this. Who understand that the question isn’t whether it’s fair or good for society—it’s: Which side of the divide will your business be on?

Because there are only two options: you’re either the disruptor, or you’re the disrupted.

Your grandfather’s business model is dead. Stop pretending otherwise.

PS It looks like we are doing an Alpha launch of the tool to 10-15 core users in two weeks and releasing the Beta version in early October. We’re getting close!