Coyle's 2026 thesis that AI's primary economic impact operates through corporate reorganization — changes in decision-making processes, resource allocation, and coordination — rather than through simple task automation or job replacement.
Coyle's February 2026 essay 'AI Will Transform Business, Not Just Jobs' points toward the institutional dimension of the AI transition. She argues that AI is fundamentally an information technology that affects decision-making processes, and that its impact will manifest through corporate reorganization rather than simple task automation. The implication for measurement is significant: if AI's primary value is in improving decisions rather than increasing output, then the national accounts — which measure output — will systematically undercount the value. Better decisions produce better outcomes, but the quality improvement in decisions is even harder to measure than the quality improvement in products.
AI Organizational Transformation
In The You On AI Field Guide
The thesis reframes the popular discourse about AI and jobs. Job displacement is real but partial. The deeper transformation operates at the level of how firms are organized — how information flows, how decisions are made, how resources are allocated, how coordination happens across units. These are the intangible capabilities that determine competitive advantage