AI kills middlemen who don't take responsibility

AI pushes information-rent to near zero, but liability-rent hasn't moved an inch. Across 30+ companies surveyed, surviving middlemen are all migrating toward responsibility-heavy positions: EvenUp requires lawyer sign-off on every document, Boundless enforces four rounds of human review, Xometry routes all complex drawings to engineers. Convoy died because it earned neither information rent nor liability premium. Most players like Newfront and Fictiv ended up acquired by incumbents; only Xometry went public independently. The post advises figuring out who signs and who pays when things go wrong before evaluating anything else.

Why it matters: A well-researched industry analysis that advances the 'AI kills middlemen' debate into a sharper framework of information rent vs. liability rent, backed by concrete company data. Not scored higher because it's ultimately a commentary piece, not a product launch or model break...