CONCEPT
Prediction Products
The outputs of surveillance capitalism's computational factory—predictions of what individuals or populations will do next—sold not to users but to third parties interested in modifying behavior.
Prediction products are the manufactured goods of surveillance capitalism: computational assessments of future behavior produced by processing behavioral surplus through machine intelligence. Unlike products sold to consumers who use them, prediction products are sold in what Zuboff calls behavioral futures markets to businesses whose interest is not understanding behavior but shaping it—advertisers purchasing predictions of which users will click, insurers purchasing predictions of which applicants will file claims, employers purchasing predictions of which workers will remain productive. The products are valuable precisely to the extent they are accurate, and accuracy depends on the scale and intimacy of behavioral surplus extraction. AI has transformed prediction products from probabilistic forecasts into comprehensive cognitive profiles: not merely what individuals might do but how they think, how they evaluate, what expertise they possess—predictions about professional competence that could reshape hiring, promotion, compensation across knowledge economies.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Zuboff's framework identifies prediction products as the mechanism converting surveillance into capitalism—the step where extracted behavioral surplus becomes monetizable commodity.