tech
April 12, 2026
Most of What You're Building Will Be Replaced by a Better Model. Here Are the Five Layers Between You and Irrelevance.
If your name isn’t Anthropic or OpenAI or Google, you have a problem. You need to find a space to build in where a better model won’t just erase everything you’ve made. That problem isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening right now to a dozen companies worth billions of dollars.

TL;DR
- The AI app builder category is collapsing, with many companies being easily replaced by better foundational models.
- Durable value on the internet will come from five areas AI cannot structurally provide on its own: trust, context, distribution, taste, and liability.
- Companies like Replit, Vercel, and Notion are distinguished from 'wrapper companies' by their ability to build on these durable layers.
- The future web will organize around these five essential layers, impacting how new products and services are built.
- The article offers prompts for positioning oneself within these verticals and testing 'agent-readiness'.
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